Change of guard needed in Guyana’s cricket

Feb 05, 2010 Sports

Roger Harper must be involved

Roger Harper

Says Sean Devers

As Guyana’s performance became progressively innocuous on the third afternoon of their last game in Barbados, the expressions on the faces of the Guyanese in the crowd turned from disappointment to disgust as CCC galloped to victory in three days.
Watching Davendra Bishoo, who has now played 15 First-Class matches send down some unplayable leg-breaks followed by a succession of shots balls, or Brendon Bess, who has also played 15 First Class games and averages 45.3 runs per wicket, bowling with genuine pace but unable to string 6 balls in one area, was frustrating.
The new immigration policy is making life difficult for undocumented Guyanese living in Barbados and it was sad to see that the fans, some of whom risked the possibility deportation to back their countrymen, showed more national pride than some of those on the field.

Chetram Singh

When Vishaul Singh’s leg-spin, which at times landed half way down the pitch, was introduced, many fans openly voiced their disbelief in the strategy instead of going down fighting.
There can be no complains about the weather in Guyana last year and according to Coach Ravindra Seeram the fitness preparation was among the most intense for a national cricket team. Two practice matches were held and Manager Carl Moore said before the team left for the Region’s inaugural Day/Night First Class match in Antigua, that this year’s team was one of the fittest in a long time. There is no shortage of talent in Guyana’s cricket so the big question is what has gone wrong and gone wrong so quickly?
There are several different reasons for Guyana’s cricket decline and the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) will be among those to claim that the players lack pride, don’t work hard enough on their personal development and are only influenced by money.
However, while those are valid points it is time that those who run Guyana’s cricket take blame for not installing proper structures and systems for the cricket development.
The power struggles and internal wrangling among Board members, some of which have been exposed to the media by GCB officials, is adversely affecting the cricket and if structures and personnel are not changed, Guyana’s cricket will die a slow death.

Ravindra Seeram

Last season, Seeram replaced Albert Smith in the middle of last year’s tournament and made little difference as Guyana finished last.
While the 48-year-old Seeram, who scored 3 centuries and 12 fifties at an average of 35.03 from 41 First-Class matches, was a classy right-handed batsman during the 1980s, he has struggled as National Coach. Reon King worked as assistant Coach to the National team on home soil but no bowling Coach was appointed at a time when there is no longer the experience of Nagamootoo or McGarrell in the bowling attack.
New President of the Georgetown Cricket Association (GCA) Roger Harper is a former Test player and West Indies senior team Coach. With Guyana being embarrassed at the regional level in the last few seasons, the GCB must find a role for Harper.
While Seeram’s cricket knowledge is sound he seems incapable of adequately addressing the problems of the bowlers whose performances have regressed since his appointment last year ahead of more qualified candidates like Harper, King and Michael ‘Hyles’ Franco, the hardest working and arguably most efficient local Coach.
The GCB seems not serious about Guyana winning but more interested in scoring ‘political points’ among their supporters and it is time the cricket public advocate for change.
Former Guyana and West Indies Skipper Carl Hooper says he wants to be involved with Guyana’s cricket revival but seems reluctant to work with the present Board. Many feel that the GCB Head played a key role in Hooper’s removal as West Indies Skipper when he was elected WICB Director.
The GCB President, Chetram Singh, once considered genuinely interested in the game’s development in Guyana despite his lack of practical knowledge of the sport, seems to have gotten ‘old’ and seem to have little control of his board members, many of whom are operating in ‘cowboy’ fashion.
Singh informed that the indoor facility and Hostel at LBI would have been completed last November. The facility is yet to be opened for the players’ use while the practice facility at GNIC, constructed with the Stanford 20/20 money is far from a proper practice venue and the indoor nets in Essequibo is still not ready.
Many GCB members say the players are not working enough on their game but usually a player is as good or as bad as the system that produces him. The standard on the field is a clear indication of the cricket system in Guyana and only a change of guard can change the fortunes of Guyana’s cricket.
Harper’s appointment as GCA head is a positive move and one hopes he is used in some capacity by the GCB if they are really series about the revival of local cricket.
It is also hoped that more is done to improve pitches at the first division level and that something is put in place to lift the low standard of first division cricket in Guyana by implementing strategies to keep more of the senior players at home.
Due to the large number of limited overs cricket played at club level, our spinners are no longer attacking wicket-takers but ‘containers’ who struggle to dismiss good batsmen on good pitches and it was amusing to read that a sponsor of a 20/20 Essequibo under-15 competition was commended for his contribution to the development of the young players due to his competition.
No wonder Essequibo continue to waste time and money (which the GCB says they don’t have to pay people like Harper) at the senior 4-day level and it must be for their support at the GCB elections that they were re-included in the competition.
Essequibo’s cricket continues to wonder down the patch of irrelevance while Demerara is even worse with the boardroom battles more action-packed than the ones on the field.
The Berbice Cricket Board (BCB) is the best of the country Boards but their haste to rush to the press to campaign for players who have failed miserably for their country instead of ensuring their cricketers work to lift their game suggest that insularity is still alive.
Guyana’s struggles at under-19 level, an area they dominated the region in the 1990s is also a reflection of a Board that has run out of ideas, become complacent and is stuck in their old ways. Change is needed since it is difficult to imagine things getting worse.
The efforts of new GCB member Robin Singh to set up an impressive looking GCB web site must be commended.
This shows that it is time younger more vibrant people with fresh ideas to match the changing times get onto the GCB. It seems the aging executives are lost in a time zone and only care about self-interest and power.
Many eyebrows were raised when Guyana Sports Minister Dr Frank Anthony declared that the USA Cricket Board would finance a 20/20 competition for 150 schools in Guyana. The BCB also organized a youth 20/20 tournament at a time when the ‘Chanderpaul temperament’ is a rare asset in young batsmen who only understand how to ‘beat the ball’ and have little idea how to build an innings in 2-innings cricket.
Where are our wicketkeepers and spinners who have the ability to produce more than just fast, flat, straight balls to keep things tight?
When I was an under-16 player I played in the Neville Sarjoo 2-innings One-Day competition and lots of 2nd division cricket which had several ‘older’ players who were no longer interested in 1st division cricket but were still very good. You had to be a very good teenager to play 2nd or 1st division cricket in the 1980s since there was also a 3rd Class 2-innings competition for those ‘not so good’ players.
Two-innings cricket forced me to learn to turn the ball at an early age and being exposed to playing with and against people like Rex Collymore and Clyde Butts as a teen, taught me the value of flight and spin. Most young off-spinners in Guyana can hardly turn the ball on good surfaces and yet take handful of wickets against batsmen who can only ‘block or lash’ and rarely use their feet in what is an extremely low standard of club cricket in Guyana.
If we are serious about improving we have to be serious about change. Former GCB Vice-President Alvin Johnson said during his speech at the GCB annual awards ceremony last December that you should not ask what the cricket is doing for you but rather what you are doing for the cricket.
I suspect that most officials and the young players, who seem unwilling to make the sacrifices to improve their trade but still expect to get picked to represent the people of Guyana, did not even hear Johnson’s charge.
I was among those who supported Singh but he now seems to be allowing everyone to do as they please as the cricket falls to pieces.
He has been the GCB head since 1991 and our cricket is at rock-bottom. How long is too long?