Not enough focus on female cricket ‘Pelting’ & not adhering to Laws marred schools tourney

Dec 29, 2018 Sports

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By Sean Devers
At a time when the Berbice Cricket Board (BCB) is the only Board that organises hard ball club cricket for females, the GCB schedules female tournaments without preparing the ladies resulting in substandard competitions especially at youth level.
The Inter-County players from Demerara play in female softball teams since there are no female hard ball competitions at Club or school level.
The sub Associations and the Education Ministry are also guilty of not paying enough attention to the development of female hard ball cricket.
The U-17 T20 Female Franchise League was a good initiative and although the teams lacked proper preparation and some of Laws of Cricket were not adhered to, there were positives from the tournament.
The League was won by Essequibo and while nobody scored a 50 or took a five-wicket haul everyone contributed with their only loss being to West Demerara and that loss in the super-over, was the only Tie in the tournament.
Lisa Charles, Annalisa D’Aguiar, Lilitha Patterson, Divani Ross, Navika Narine, Marcia Anthony, Lavina Ragbeer and Onika Stoley all contributed in a team effort.
Lower Corentyne only lost to Essequibo and finished second as 14-year-old Canje Secondary School’s Navina Ramnauth looked the best off-spinner on show and got support from Anissa Samaroo, while Ashmini Munisar and Skipper Lafano Gilgeous batted well.
National U-18 Tennis Champion, 17-year-old Afrucia Gentle of Mae’s was the MVP of the League.
Gentle began with 55 not out at Albion and followed it up with scores of 89 run out, 109 not out, 13 and 56 for an aggregate of 322 at an Average of 107.33.
The powerfully built Gentle captured 10 wickets with her left-arm spin and shared in useful opening stands with Dalancy Seecharran, while National U-15 Footballer Shamaya Daniels offered support in a ‘three-member’ team.
East Coast’s Shemika Edwards (51) was the other batter to score a half-century while Demerara’s Buckam, who took 5-18 against West Berbice and was the leading wicket-taker with 15 victims and along with Lower Corentyne’s Ramnauth who had 5-8 in the final round against GT, were the only bowlers with five-wicket hauls.
The best players from this tournament should be worked on with the aim of making their U-19 County teams.
Although providing coloured uniforms, bats, pads and gloves, the League was hastily arranged without Coaches sent into the schools to work with players resulting in the strongest sides not being selected.
Qualified Umpires were not appointed by the GCB and Coaches used as Umpires which resulted in the ‘no-ball’ Law for illegal actions and for balls bouncing more than twice in addition to the ‘time out’ law not being adhered to, while the playing conditions for ‘wides’ were changed in the middle of the tournament with wides being scored as two runs and not re-bowled.
Next year the GCB should collaborate with the Education Ministry to send Coaches to schools before picking the best players from each school for the Franchise teams.
In the Female U-19 Competition Demerara were declared champions after defeating Berbice and President’s XI on February 17 & 18.
Despite going down to the President’s XI by one run in the final game, Demerara emerged champions of the female Inter County U-19 T20 tournament.
The President’s XI fell for 38 in 17 overs with Lavern Welcome and Mandy Mangru taking two wickets each for Demerara who were dismissed for 37.
Yougeeta Ballkishun made 11 and Mangru nine. Kessica Munroe grabbed 4-11, Lafona Gilgeous 2-10 and Grimmond 2-3.
Demerara beat Berbice by 15 runs in the first match to win the tournament on a better net run rate.
The 50 overs format was won by defending champions Berbice (8) defeating Essequibo (0) and Demerara (4).
Led by a brilliant all-round performance from 32 year-old left-arm pacer Erva Giddings, Defending Champions Berbice got their 2018 campaign off to a winning start when they crushed Essequibo by 160 runs at Lusignan in a game reduced to 24 overs.
Giddings scored an unbeaten 45 before returning to take 5-3 with her left-arm pace to crown a fine all-rounder display on a slow track.
An undefeated 50 from 24-year-old National batter Ketana Mentore shared in an unfinished 111-run sixth wicket stand with Giddings as they joined forces with Berbice on 62-5. Opener Sheneta Grimmond chipped in with 25 to rally them to 173-5 in 24 overs.
West Indies Pacer Tremayne Smartt, who started the Essequibo slide, captured 4-23 as Essequibo included four players from the East Coast and were bowled out for 13 as eight batters failed to score.
In 2017 at Everest against the same opposition, Essequibo were routed for an embarrassing 15 from 37 balls to set the record for lowest total in Female Senior Inter-County Cricket and this year they sank to an all-time low.
Essequibo were bundled out for a paltry 38 in their first game against Demerara at Bourda and their performance at this level keeps plunging lower and lower with each match.
Demerara were beaten by Berbice in the deciding game before the T/20 Competition was cancelled due to the inclement weather.

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