Guyana continues to dominate Regional Cricket

Jan 03, 2018 Sports

---

But few Guyanese go on to West Indies success

By Sean Devers
Guyana continued to dominate Regional First-Class Cricket in 2017 to reconfirm they are the best team in the Caribbean but only three Guyanese played Test cricket during the year.
The 43-year-old Shiv Chanderpaul, who is still ‘ramping’ with the younger guys in this year’s Regional season, is the last Guyanese batsman to dominate at International level, while leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo, one the three Guyanese to play Test Cricket this year, has produced outstanding performances in spurts.
Is the reason why more Guyanese are not being picked for the West Indies by a selection panel which includes Guyanese Travis Dowlin, a case of Barbadians being given preferential treatment or is it that although Guyanese players dominate Regional Cricket it is felt that they are incapable of replicating such performances at International level… or maybe a bit of both?
Why do Test discards like Devon Smith, with a record five centuries this season, Denish Ramdin with three and Chanderpaul, with a ton and a half-century, continue to be more successful than many among the young generation in a standard which is arguable lower than First Division Cricket in Guyana and Barbados in the 1980s?
Most of the pitches with the exception of the one in St Lucia are low and slow, spinners no longer flight the ball and the batsmen lack mental toughness, powers of concentration and proper shot selection. Many of the players prefer T20 cricket.
The 32-year-old Bishoo played Test Cricket during 2017 against England before claiming his fourth five-wicket haul against Zimbabwe but was not selected in the final XI for the New Zealand series which ended in a 3-nil white wash for the Kiwis.
Vishaul Singh made his Test debut against Pakistan last April in Jamaica and scored 63 runs in three Tests at a disappointing average of 10.50, while Shimron Hetmyer who turned 21 on Boxing Day, also made his debut in the same series.
He played five Tests and made 218 runs at an Average of 21.80 with his highest score being a pugnacious 66 against New Zealand after missing out against England.
Also making his Test debut was Bajan left-handed all-rounder Raymon Reifer after consistent performances for the Guyana Jaguars Franchise. His debut came on December 1 against New Zealand and he scored 52 runs from two innings and took a wicket in each innings of his only Test.
Pacer Ronsford Beaton was the other Guyanese to play International Cricket when he made his ODI debut against New Zealand but the first Essequibo player to play International Cricket for West Indies was reported for a suspect action.
Bishoo was the only Guyanese to make an impact with nine wickets against Zimbabwe, while Hetmyer looks very talented and seems to have a bright future once he learns to improve his shot selection and temper his natural aggression.
After an ordinary ‘A’ Team series against Sri Lanka in Jamaica, the left-handed Singh, who looked uncomfortable against the short balls at Test level, returned to Regional Cricket with a hundred in his first match in St Lucia, scored an unbeaten 97 in his next match in St Kitts before following it up with his second ton of the season in Trinidad. He however, despite compiling 464 runs from 10 innings by year end, fell away in the three home games.
Jaguars Skipper Leon Johnson is only the second Captain in Regional First-Class Cricket to capture a hat-trick of titles and is widely regarded the best Leader presently in the West Indies.
Johnson made his ODI debut as a 20-year-old but had to wait another six years to play the first of his nine Tests. He has 403 Test runs with two fifties, including one on debut against Bangladesh in St Lucia in 2014.
His low conversion rate of only five centuries in 37 scores of over 50 is a worry but still only 30, his 367 runs from 12 innings this season with two fifties and his highest First-Class score of 165 in Trinidad suggests that he has a chance of resurrecting his Test career.
But he will know that he has not reached 50 in his last three games on home soil and that consistency is key to him achieving a Test come-back. A few big scores in his remaining possible six innings in the Four-Day tournament could get him back into very fragile West Indies batting order.
Another player hoping for Test re-call is 28-year-old left arm spinner Veerasammy Permaul, who has 18 wickets from six Tests at an average of 43.77 and is among five bowlers (Nickita Miller, Ryan Austin, Shane Shillingford and Mahendra Nagamootoo) with 300 Regional First-Class wickets.
Permaul captured his 400th First-Class victim this season on his way to 41 scalps from seven matches, the most for this season.
While Permaul has dominated Caribbean batsmen who most times seems clueless against spin on spin friendly tracks and is bowling with good control, he is bowls too fast and flat and will be hard pressed to be successful against International batsmen and on good pitches.
The other Guyanese to play Test Cricket in the Jaguars team is opener Rajendra Chandrika, who played the last of his five Tests in August 2016 and has a Test average of 14.00. He has lost form, confidence and his place in the Guyana team after playing just four games this season his Test return seems very unlikely.
Although Ramdin has the second most runs and has the second most centuries this season behind another Test reject Devon Smith, he is no longer ‘Keeping for the Red Force and his Test career is over.
Anthony Bramble, who turned 27 on December 11, is the most improved wicketkeeper in the Region in the last four seasons after looking out of his depth behind the stumps when he started at Regional level in 2010 as a 20-year-old.
Bramble has 173 dismissals from 45 First-Class games and the most for the two seasons. He is again the leading wicketkeeper this season. When he reached 96 he threw his wicket away in St Lucia as he posted his eighth 50.
His problem was not getting a hundred, but in the last match of this year the Berbician not only registered his maiden ton but extended it to 196 before he ran out of partners four short of joining Junior Murray as the only Keeper to score a Regional double century.
A few more runs and consent scores in the last three games could see Bramble making his ‘A’ team debut very soon.
West Berbice pacer Keon Joseph continues to improve technically, physically and mentally as a bowler and had a good ‘A’ team series last year. Joseph turned 26 last November and has 93 wickets from 33 First-Class with 14 of those wickets coming from five matches this season. Once he remains fit he should be a Test candidate this year.
Guyana has five members on the West Indies U-19 team for next year’s World Cup in New Zealand and young Guyanese cricketers like Kemo Paul, Sherfane Rutherford, Romario Shepherd and Gudakesh Motie have all shown promise at First-Class level.
West Indies’ U-19s are the defending World Cup Champions at a time when our senior team is being beaten by everyone.
We all are aware of the problems in West Indies cricket, compounded by the less than amicable relationship between the players and board but we need to find solutions to arrest what seems to be a terminal decline of West Indies cricket.
We have the raw talent and must find ways of developing it into a product worth of putting on the International stage. The players must also work hard towards their self-development since too many of them enter the First-Class arena with flaws that should have been corrected at club level.

---

---