‘Pollard took the game away from us’ – Coach

Sep 17, 2010 Sports

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Captain, Coach had different plans for Foo

By Sean Devers in South Africa
In association with Digicel, Carib Beer, Leisure Inn, Igloo Ice-Cream, Forest Enterprise, Dave West Indian Imports (NY), Cops Security & Universal DVD Club

Guyana lost by 31 runs to Mumbai Indians yesterday in Durban and while it was a vastly improved performance there are several areas of concern as the Guyanese now prepare to for their next match on Sunday.
Because of their low run rate Guyana cannot qualify for the semi-finals unless they win their last two matches by staggering margins. They needed to win yesterday’s match to stay in contention of advancing to the next stage of the 10-team tournament which ends with the final on September 26.

At 99-3 with five overs to go, Mumbai Indians were struggling to score freely against the spin pair of Davindra Bishoo and Royston Crandon before Kieron Pollard exploded with an unbeaten 72 from just 30 balls. His last 67 runs came from just 21 deliveries and included 9 sixes.
Coach Ravindra Seeram told Kaieteur Sport after the game that Pollard took the game away from Guyana.  Even though the Guyanese did not have their strongest bowlers at the end, instead using debutant pacer Paul Wintz to bowl the final over, Seeram felt in the mood Pollard was in, he would have treated any bowler with disdain.
“I can say we had an improved performance but Pollard really took the game away from us. I really felt we could have won this game but it got away from us in the last five overs of their innings and we were never really able to chase down 185,” Seeram said.
He said the plan was to bowl Pollard full and wide but things did not go according to plan as MI scored 85 runs in their last five overs.
Seeram said the decision to drop the experienced Lennox Cush was based on the fact that conditions were overcast and the pitch had some bounce in.  Cush is Guyana’s leading T20 wicket taker. He was the most economical bowler in the opening game and is also a capable batsman who can bat anywhere in the order and his omission in a must win game was surprising.
A source close to the team informed that Cush was dropped because he refused to apologise to the Captain after he and two other team members opted not to go to watch Mumbai Indians last game because they wanted to rest after a practice session. The source said that the rift between the Skipper and Cush developed because the Captain was not pleased with the all-rounder being allowed to miss the bulk of the training camp to represent the USA in Italy.
Seeram said he was not aware of such a problem and added that Wintz, Guyana’s most expensive bowler, conceding 46 runs from his four overs, was not supposed to bowl the last over. “Roy (Crandon) was supposed to have bowled the final over but I guess things changed on the field,” Seeram pointed out.
Despite giving away 19 from his last over Bishoo took 3-34 from his 4 overs while Royston Crandon’s 4 cost just 25 runs before Skipper Ramnaresh Sarwan used pacers Wintz and Esuan Crandon for the last three overs which proved very expensive.
Cush would usually open the bowling with his off spin and then return to bowl the final over and many felt if he had played and had to bowl four extra overs of spin, the victory target would have been less.
There was also disagreement between the coach and captain concerning where Jonathon Foo should bat. “The Skipper wanted Foo to bat before Crandon but I decided that because the seamers were on and they would bowl back of a length to him on the bouncy pitch, Crandon should bat earlier since he can also hit the ball,” said Seeram, a Level one coach, picked ahead of Level 3 Coach Roger Harper for this trip.  Foo was eventually caught behind off the left-arm seamer Zaheer Khan for one when he came in with just two overs remaining.
Seeram said that while he was pleased with the improvement in the batting, the fielding and catching was still a major concern. Sachin Tendulkar was drooped off consecutive balls from Chris Barnwell.
With Guyana needing to get just under 10 per over to win, openers Sewnarine Chattergoon (1 from 6 balls) and Travis Dowlin (7 from 18) balls took 4 overs between them for 8 runs but Seeram, a former Guyana middle order First Class batsman, said this was the plan.  “Because of the conditions we wanted the openers to try and stick around and not lose wickets for the first four overs. They have still not adjusted to the bounce and we could be looking at making some changes for the next match,” Seeram informed.
Dowlin and Chattergoon have made very little effort to go over the top in the first six ‘power play’ overs and have put pressure on the others by not scoring quickly.  Richard Ramdeen is the other specialist opener in the side while Barnwell, Derwin Christian and Cush could all open.
The climate and conditions have been a major problem for the players and Seeram said that the team arrived in South Africa too late and did not have enough time to have any practice games before their opening match.  “The teams which came here and had practice matches had to pay for their extra stay here and their boards must have looked after that. I think when we (GCB) found out we could have come earlier we could not get flights so we had little time to adjust to the conditions,” the Coach added.
Unity and team work was one of the key reasons Guyana emerged as the Caribbean T20 champions and it is understood that Dowlin and Esuan Crandon were the other players who did not go to watch the Mumbai Indians match against South Australia. Cush’s omission when Narsingh Deonarine and even Royston Crandon were retained, seems a strange one for a must win game where experienced was needed.
When contacted Cush declined to comment and said that whatever is in the best interest of the team he would be happy with since his main focus is helping Guyana to win. He said that team spirit should be important at this stage, adding that if he had anything to say he would do so at the end of the competition.
Chairman of the National selectors Claude Raphael, who is here with the team, informed that he plays no part in team selection on tour adding that this is done by the Captain, Vice-Captain and Coach.

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