Guyana Struggled both on and of the field in 2011

Dec 30, 2011 Sports

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Bishoo success & Chanderpaul’s record Test appearance were positives

 

By Sean Devers

 

Guyana failed to win any Regional Cricket tournament this year while politics, internal fighting

among local cricket Administrators, allegations of corruption and mismanagement of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) in addition to a six-month overdue and controversial GCB elections contributed to a dismal 2011 for Guyana’s cricket both on and off the field.
The selection of Albion leg-spinner Davendra Bishoo as the ICC Emerging cricketer of the year and Shiv Chanderpaul becoming the most capped West Indies Test player and crowning that moment with a Test century in Dominica provided brief sparks of joy for Guyanese fans in 2011.  Bishoo also copped the Guyana Cricketer of the Year Award while Sabrina Munroe was named female Guyana cricketer of the year.
West Indies also won their first game in 17 Tests when they beat Pakistan at Providence but Guyanese pride was tempered by the knowledge that the pitch was one of the worst seen in recent times in a completed Test match in the West Indies.
The Bharat Jagdeo Guyana Government attempted to set up an IMC with Sports Minister Dr Frank Anthony as the head to temperately replace the GCB and run the affairs of Guyana’s cricket and despite renewed calls for this to happen by the new Attorney General, who had represented the Bissoon Singh faction in the Demerara Cricket Board case, this did not happen.
Several in the local and regional cricketing fraternity felt the then President of Guyana was overstepping his authority with regards to cricket and the WICB President quickly met with him and announced that the WICB fully recognized and endorsed the Ramsay Ali led GCB which came into office in July at a contentious AGM and elections at GCC.
The year ended with the new Government appointing an IMC to run Guyana’s cricket and the members reporting to Guyana’s Sports Minister.
However, the GCB said they would not participate in this and the WICB again reconfirmed that they recognised the Ali led GCB and that such a move by Government could lead to implications for Guyana’s cricket.
A failed player boycott by the BCB threatened to get ugly with the players who defied the BCB orders not to participate in practice matches to select a Guyana team to face T&T at Bourda called to a meeting. Good sense eventually prevailed and no sanctions were instituted against the players who played.
Widely regarded as the best run cricket Board in Guyana, the BCB showed some signs of disunity towards the latter half of the year and the BCB Secretary took the GCB to court before the case was dismissed since the GCB, like most other sporting entities in Guyana, was a legal non entity and the court had no power to make a ruling on it or its members.
Ali took over from Chetram Singh who was the GCB President since 1991 and at the AGM and Elections a motion moved by the

President of the BCB to limit the term of Presidency to no more than three two-year terms was passed.
During the ODI between West Indies and Pakistan at Providence former President Bharat Jagdeo, his Sports Minister and Chanderpaul walked around the Stadium in protest of the decision by the WICB selectors to ask Chanderpaul to retire from limited overs cricket.
Ramnaresh Sarwan missed the Regional Super50 due to injury and the year ended with more controversy when Sarwan, who claimed from overseas he was once again fit, was not picked in the Guyana t20 team for next year’s Caribbean Cup tournament.
Sarwan publically challenged the GCB decision to drop him from the T20 side and the GCB responded by saying it was considering disciplinary action against the former Guyana Captain, added that the Chairman of Selectors Rayon Griffith had lodged a complaint to the Police saying that Sarwan had threatened him during a telephone conversation.
Mark Harper, who had replaced Rovindra Seeram as Coach after the t20 tournament in January, was himself replaced by Seeram for next year’s t20 tournament as the GCB informed that Coaches and Managers would be now selected on a tour-by-tour basis.
The general standard of local club cricket was appallingly low and the unavailability of grounds for matches in the city due to softball cricket and other non-cricket activities added to the problems in local cricket.
Berbice continued to dominate at the local level winning everything except the GCB t20 Big Smash which was won by the GCB President’s X1 who beat the Georgetown Pitbulls in the final at Albion.
Berbice also won the inaugural Jam Zone t20 two-day Festival which included all the biggest names in West Indies t20 cricket including Chris Gayle and Kieron Pollard. This competition attracted massive crowds on both days and concluded with the finals under lights at Providence.
The year ended on a sad note for Berbician Tremaine Smartt who was banned by the ICC from International cricket after making the West Indies Female team. She unknowingly used medication for her injured knee which contained a banned substance.
On the field: Starting as defending champions in the 2011 Caribbean Cup t20 competition in January, Guyana lost to Jamaica by 50 runs in Antigua and again to the Windward’s in a crucial match in Barbados and for the first time since they won the inaugural Stanford Regional t20 competition in Antigua in 2006, failed to reach the semi-final.
Eventual Champions Trinidad and Tobago, the Windward’s, Jamaica and English side Hampshire qualified for the ‘final four’ at the Kensington Oval.
Skipper Sarwan (80 from 4 innings), Derwin Christian (68 from 4 innings) and Steven Jacobs (54 from 3 innings) were the only Guyanese batsmen to reach 50 runs in the competition with Sarwan’s top-score of 59 being the only half-century by a Guyanese.
Shiv Chanderpaul, the other present Test batsman in the side managed just 32 runs from three innings at an average of 10.66 before he missed the must-win last game against the Windward’s while Travis Dowlin, Guyana most successful t20 batsman, struggled badly like he did in the Champions League in South Africa by making just 26 runs from four innings at an average of 6.50.
Sewnarine Chattergoon, Dowlin’s opening partner from the Champions League in South Africa lost his place after a solitary match in which he made three in a disappointing Guyana display. Jonathon Foo continued his South Africa woes with also averaged under 10 with 37 from four innings.
Royston Crandon (7) and Devendra Bishoo (6) were the only Guyanese bowlers with more than five wickets in the competition with Coach Seeram, who was at the helm when Guyana won the 2010 Caribbean Cup to qualify for South Africa, losing his job to Mark Harper for the Regional First-Class tournament which commenced on February 4.
If Guyana performed badly in the T20 format their showing in the four-day tournament was even worse as they finished ‘dead last’ among the eight teams involved with 16 from seven games including a rained out encounter with Jamaica eventually winning the competition.
Rajendra Chandrika, who scored 323 runs from six matches, topped the Guyana averages with 32.3 while Christian (267), Leon Johnson (263) and Assad Fudadin (231) were the only other Guyanese batsmen to reach 200 runs.
Permaul had two five-wicket hauls in his 25 wickets while Bishoo took 15 and Test pacer Brendon Bess 12. No other Guyana bowler had more than Fudadin’s seven.
Guyana, the powerhouse in Regional under-19 in the 1990s when they won an unprecedented six consecutive titles from 1992, finished in the bottom half of both the three-day and one day TCL Group regional tournaments in Guyana in July and August.
The Guyanese began confidently an innings and 27-run win against the Leewards in the opening game at Providence. The scored 317 with Chanderpaul Hemraj (88) and fellow left-hander Kwame Crosse (61) missing maiden tons while leg-spinner Amir Khan had two three-wickets hauls and left-arm spinner Gudakesh Motie and Anthony Adams had four in either innings for the Guyanese.
But the Guyana batsmen struggled badly in the reminder of the rain-hit competition as the home team failed to capture their first three-day title at this level since their 2007 success in St Kitts under Jacobs’ captaincy. Guyana are yet to win a Regional One-Day title since the competition was first played in Trinidad in 1998.
Despite good batting from left-hander Brandon Chanderpaul, the son of Shiv Chanderpaul, Guyana also failed to win the Regional under-15 tournament in Trinidad in July.
The Guyanese senior female side included West Indies players in Captain Shamaine Campbell, Tremaine Smartt, June Ogle-Thomas and Sabrina Munroe but lost two of their three matches in Barbados in August in the West Indies Female tournament with their other game being washed out and with the Regional Super50 to be played on home soil, the Guyanese had their final chance to win a regional title for 2011.
But that was not to be as Guyana lost to T&T in the first semi-finals in the competition which was eventually won by Jamaica and which lacked real batsmanship on the slow, spin friendly Guyana pitches.
Johnson batted well to average 49 and score two fifties from three matches but his pet shot (the sweep) caused his demise on two occasions and Chris Barnwell (96) and Jacobs (79) were the only other Guyanese to 60 in the competition.
Jacobs was Guyana’s leading wicket-taker with seven scalps while medium pacer Paul Wintz (6) was the only other Guyana bowler to claim more than five wickets.
The selection of Christian and Barnwell for the West Indies t20 team along with the selection of Permaul as Captain of the West Indies ‘A’ team were positives for Guyana.
Fudadin and Johnson also gained ‘A’ team picks this year while Crosse, Amir Khan and Ronsford Beaton were picked on the West Indies under-19 team. Both Beaton and Khan also made their first class debuts this year for Guyana.
Ramsay Ali and GCB Secretary Anand Sanasie were appointed Guyana’s new Directors on the WICB while Clive Lloyd, who the Guyana Government said would head the IMC, was incorporated into the GCB even as protests surrounding the legality of the GCB continued.

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