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Jaguars’ three-day league- a wonderful initiative, but senior players should lead by example

Oct 12, 2016 Sports

By Zaheer Mohamed

The recently concluded Jaguars three-day league was a wonderful initiative by the Guyana Cricket Board- this tournament gave more players an opportunity to showcase their talent since there were eight teams involved as compared to the inter-county competition. Hosting a competition of such magnitude will always be challenging since acquiring venues for matches is never an easy task and players should be thankful for the opportunity.
Lower Corentyne were crowned champions after seven-round of matches which saw many outstanding performances by both batsmen and bowlers. Chanderpaul Hemraj, Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Akshaya Persaud, Keemo Paul Assad Fudadin, Christopher Barnwell, Kevon Boodie, Seon Hetmyer, Devon Clements, Raymond Reifer, Keyron Fraser, Bhaskar Yadram, Jonathan Foo were among those outstanding with the bat, while Romario Shepherd, Eon Hooper, Gajanand Suknanan, Anthony Adams, Veerasammy Permaul and Kamesh Yadram were some who excelled with the ball.
While there were a number of positives that came out of the inaugural tournament there is always room for improvement and the senior players need to lead by example in future such tournaments. While Guyana has won the WICB PCL four-day tournament for the past two years, the selectors can help to improve the performance of the players by increasing the competition for places in the team.
However, when one think of a professional tournament you think of professional players who should conduct themselves in a manner that would not hurt the game, but this was not the case in many matches. The spirit of cricket includes respect for your opponents, your own captain and team, the role of umpires and the games traditional values. Additionally the captains are responsible at all times for ensuring that play is conducted within the spirit of the game as well as within the laws.
The behavior of many cricketers especially the senior players who are ambassadors for the game was unacceptable throughout the tournament and the GCB should not encourage such actions. Players were involved in verbal and physical exchanges which prompted umpires to intervene. Many players lacked respect for their teammates and opponents – this defeated the purpose of the tournament since it will not encourage but discourage the younger players. The use of indecent language by players could have been heard by spectators at several venues and this underlines the lack of respect for the game, and one is left to wonder if these players are really serious of representing the West Indies. The fact that players wore coloured footwear and turned up late for matches is highly unacceptable.
Players should be reminded that it is against the spirit of the game to dispute and umpire’s decision by word, action or gesture, to direct abusive language towards an opponent or an umpire, and there is no place for violence on the field of play. Captains and umpires together set the tone for the game and every player should make an important contribution to this.
Talent wise, the future of Guyana’s cricket looks bright and while some players have excelled, others must recognise the fact that cricket is played 70% above the shoulders.

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