Ramnauth, Thorne among surprise omissions from Inter County U19 tourney

Apr 30, 2019 Sports

By Zaheer Mohamed

Age group tournaments are often the cornerstone for the elevation for many young cricketers. And with the Hand-in-Hand Inter-County U19 three-day tournament starting today where four teams will battle for supremacy, many players will look to capitalize on the opportunities provided.

This tournament is being used as a yardstick to select Guyana teams for Regional age group tournaments, take into consideration that the tournament is being played in the three-day and 50-over formats, the selectors will be given enough time to come up with the best possible squads to represent the Golden Arrow Head.

But first, the respective counties must put together their best possible teams so that the best players can be given equal opportunities to stake a claim for selection on the national team. Like a coach, selectors can either break or make a player. Often we see players are being miraculously selected, while others are being sidelined even tough their performances should guarantee them places on the teams.

Young players either switch to other sports, which may not be their favourites or strength, or even stop playing because of not being selected when performing well in preceding tournaments. The aftermath of selection blunders can also lead players to migrating as we would have seen with so many promising cricketers in the past-former West Indies U19 batsman Hemnarine Chattergoon is a name that readily comes to mind.

Berbice U15 opener, Rampertab Ramnauth, undoubtedly one of the finest talents around, was surprisingly omitted from the Selected U17 team. This player has shown much promise and is definitely one to look forward to in the future. He has displayed maturity that belied his age and impressed many in the recently concluded Regional U15 tournament in which he scored a century against Jamaica and 92 not out versus Trinidad and Tobago. Yet he wasn’t selected on the U17 side for this tournament.

Promising fast bowler Isai Thorne, who performed well in the regional U15 tournament, was left out. From all reports he was the fastest bowler in that competition in which he took 10 wickets, the most by a fast bowler.

Jonathan Rampersaud, another young talent, who had a best of 41 not out and 4-17 at an economy rate of 2.15 in the recently concluded inter county U17 tournament, was another surprise omission. Shamar Yearwood, one of the best wicketkeepers at the U17 level; he effected the most dismissals in the inter county, Trevon Charles, one of the fastest bowlers around at this level and Alvin Mohabir, the leading wicket taker in the Inter County U17 with nine scalps were all omitted.

Talented Essequibo fast bowler Reyaz Khan is another name that is missing from the list of players submitted. But it is alleged that the Essequibo Cricket Board didn’t hear from Khan leading up to the competition, which may have led to his omission. Not sure what efforts, if any, were made to get him involved.