Guyana continues to dominate Regional First – Class cricket; But few Guyanese are going on to International success

Oct 29, 2019 Sports

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By Sean Devers

Guyana continues to dominate Regional First-Class cricket and have won every First Class titles since 2015 to reconfirm they are the best ‘Red Ball’ team in the Caribbean but only two Guyanese played Test cricket during this year.

The 21-year-old fast bowling all-rounder Kemo Paul and 22-year-old Shimron Hetmyer are the only two Guyanese to play Test cricket for this year while 33-year-old leg-spinner Davindra Bishoo played the last of his 36 Tests in December 2018 against Bangladesh in Dhaka.
Paul, who has a highest score of 47 from his six Test innings and six wickets from three Tests, and Hetmyer, who played 15 Tests between April 2017 and September 2019 scoring five fifties and 825 runs at an Average of 28.44 from 29 innings have been selected in the squad for the Afghanistan Test from November 27 in India.
West Indies also plays three T20s and three ODIs before opposing India in three T20s in December. Romario Shepherd, the 24-year-old fast-bowling all-rounder has been selected to oppose Afghanistan in three ODIs in India from November 6 to become only the third player from New Amsterdam to be picked for International cricket, following his Bermine Club mate (Tucber Park) Clayton Lambert and Wicket-Keeper Milton Pydana who played for Berbice Police.
Twenty-one-year-old Sherfane Rutherford has been selected on the T20 side to tour India after playing his lone T20I game in Dhaka last year December. Hetmyer is the only Guyanese selected for all three formats.
The 26-year-old Chanderpaul Hemraj, who played six ODIs last year, could be deemed a bit unlucky not to gain selection to the ODI Squad to India; and to a lesser extent Wicket-Keeper Anthony Bramble.
Although Hemraj made 88 runs at an Average of 13.2 in ODIs he played, the left handed opener showed form during the recently concluded CPL T20 Championships to help the Warriors to a record fifth final.
Is the reason why more Guyanese are not being picked for the West Indies by a Men’s selection panel which included Guyanese Travis Dowlin and now Roger Harper, a case of other nationalities being given preferential treatment or is it that although Guyanese players dominat

e Regional Cricket it is felt that they would not replicate such performances at International level… or maybe a bit of both?
Why does Test discards like Devon Smith, Denish Ramdin and Chanderpaul more successful than many among the young generation in Regional First-Class cricket where the standard is arguably 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 rarely flight the ball and batsmen lack mental toughness, powers of concentration and proper shot selection in an era when many West Indian players prefer T20 format.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 turns 23 on Boxing Day, also made his debut in that same series.
Also making his Test debut in 2017 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 in the last three years when he made his ODI debut against New Zealand in 2017 but the first Essequibo player to play Internationally for West Indies was reported for a suspect action after just two ODIs.

Bishoo was the only Guyanese to make an impact with nine wickets against Zimbabwe while Hetmyer, despite his recent poor run with the bat, is highly talented and seems to have a bright future once he learns to improve his shot selection and temper his natural aggression.
Jaguars Skipper Leon Johnson, has won five consecutive First-Class titles and is only the second Captain in Regional 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 including two fifties, one on debut against Bangladesh in St. Lucia in 2014. He has a Test Average of 25.18.
His low conversion rate of only five centuries in 41 scores of over 50 from 190 innings at First-Class level is a worry and now 32, time is running out on him. Johnson has reached 50 just twice (in the same game against Jamaica last February) his last 20 innings in First-Class cricket.
The 30-year-old left arm spinner Veerasammy Permaul, has 18 wickets from six Tests at an average of 43.77 and is among four bowlers (Nickita Miller, Ryan Austin, Shane Shillingford) with 400 Regional First-Class wickets. Permaul also eight wickets from seven ODIs, but has not played a Test since 2015 while his last ODI was in April 2017 against Pakistan at Providence when he had none for 34 from four overs.
Permaul has 483 First-Class wickets from 113 matches and continues to dominate Caribbean batsmen who most times seems clueless against spin on spin friendly tracks. Permaul was picked last year for a T20I but after bowling just three balls left the field with leg injury and has not been recalled.
Permaul did not play a single game in this year’s CPL although he was a member of the Warriors’ outfit. Like Johnson, Permaul seems hard press for an International recall. The other Guyanese to play Test Cricket in the last five years of Guyana’s dominance 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 Guyana team.
Anthony Bramble, who turned 29 on December 11, has the most dismissals by a Wicket-Keeper in the Region in the last four seasons after making his Regional debut in 2010 as a 20-year-old.
Bramble, led Windies ‘B’ to the final of the Global T20 in Canada and has 225 dismissals from 58 First-Class games. He was selected in the squad for the T20I against India in July but Nicolas Pooran did the duties behind the stumps. With 10 fifties and three centuries at First-Class level he is also capable with the bat.
But Shane Dowrich, Pooran, Shai Hope and Denish Ramdin (still the best gloveman in the West Indies) have been picked for the three formats for next month’s tour to India. We all are aware of the problems in West Indies cricket, compounded by the less than amicable relationship between the players and board which seems to be on the mend with recall of Trinidadians Kiron Pollard who replaces Jason Holder and Carlos Braithwaite as white ball Captain.
Daren Bravo and Sunil Narine are among those to be recalled. However, this new admiinistration threw away the baby with the bath water when it removed Esuan Crandon; the Assistant Coach when West Indies had a rare Test series win over England on their last tour to the Caribbean, from the Senior Team’s Coaching staff.
CWI President Kittitian Ricky Skerritt and his Vice President Vincentian Dr. Kishore must be careful of not trying to reward the Trinidadians (their biggest supporters at the recent CWI Elections) and more worrying is the CWI putting Dr, Shallow’s countryman Miles Bascome who played just a single T20I (making three from seven balls) on the selection panel while removing Guyanese Travis Dowlin from the men’s and putting him on the Female panel.
It must be noted that Anand Sanasie and Anand Kalladeen are the Guyanese Directors on the CWI. We have the raw talent and must find ways of developing it into a product worthy 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.
Although Cricket Guyana Inc. is the only Regional body that has set up a Franchise Academy for its fringe players who are paid a monthly salary to train, their set up must also incorporate Mental Training.
CGI has gotten sponsorship from a company that is close to the Cricket Board which is good but there must be incentives to encourage corporate entities to buy the eight Franchises so that the players could be payed a match fee which has been stopped.
The development of the LBI facility on the East Coast which will have a Gym and hopefully a swimming Pool is an excellent idea.
January’s GCB’s elections should be free and fair and hopefully help to diminish the ‘Politics’ and pave a way for all three County Boards and their Sub Associations to work together for the development of the players.
National Elections are set for next year and it is hoped that whichever Party win, the Government must show more interest in sports and upgrade cricket grounds which were flourishing in the1970s and 80’s especially those controlled by Bookers and later Guysuco.
National players and who are desirous of playing for Guyana should try to get contracts to play in England even if it’s not at the County level and the GCB contracts should include a clause with allows players to play overseas but must be available to play for Guyana if selected.
This is important, since apart for Berbice there is not much Frist Division cricket played in Guyana due to the unavailability of grounds and the cricket politics among several other reasons including the changing cricket culture from the players and Administrators.

 

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