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Letter to the Sports Editor Guyana played poorly in the Regional Super50 cricket

Nov 28, 2019 Sports

Dear Sir,

Let me state upfront, Guyana did not deserve to be in the semi-final of the Regional Super50 cricket tournament simply because they played very poor cricket, especially in their last match against the USA which they had to win to qualify for the semi-final. I watched most of their matches and one thing was clear our batting was not up to par for 50 over cricket. We were also found wanting in many other areas such as fielding and catching, and so I was not surprised that they were beaten by lowly USA.
I would like to focus on their last match against the USA. Poor bowling especially by Pestano, Reifer, Hemraj and Mohamed allowed USA to score 230 runs in their allotted 41 overs. With the constant stoppage for rain throughout the match, commonsense will tell you that you have to go hard in the early overs in the event of Duckworth Lewis, yet people like Capt. Johnson and Reifer were batting like they have 50 overs to make the runs. After the last stoppage for rain and the revised target was 221 runs in 36 overs at an asking rate of 7.2 runs per over, they made no attempt to get up to the asking rate and by the time Foo came to the crease the asking rate was over 10 runs per over.
Foo tried his best scoring 41 runs off 22 balls, but got no support from the other end and Guyana lost by a mere 8 runs. People like Johnson,18 runs off 33 balls, Reifer 33 runs off 45 balls and Ramaal Lewis 10 runs off 15 balls could not get going, resulting in Guyana not making the semi final. Besides Foo, Bramble with 38 runs off 41 balls (who was needlessly run out by Barnwell) and Barnwell himself who made 54 runs off 47 balls were the only batsmen who showed intent that they wanted to win the game for Guyana.
I cannot end this missive by addressing the poor selection policy of Mr. Rayon Griffith and his fellow selectors with regards to selecting our 50 overs squad. Yes, we have done great in the Regional Four Day competition, but we cannot select the same players for 50 over cricket, which is a vastly different game from four day cricket. Leon Johnson and Tagenarine Chanderpaul are not 50 over cricketers. They bat too slow and their strike rate is poor. The same goes for Kemol Savory. Although he made 70 odd runs in one match, he nearly caused Guyana to lose that match by his painstakingly slow batting.
How on earth was the youngster Ronaldo Ali Mohamed sent as a replacement for Beaton when we were trying to qualify for the semi final and we had far more seasoned and attacking one day cricketers in Guyana. Give me a break, we can do better than this. No wonder Guyana has not won the Regional 50 over tournament for 14 years now. We cannot do the same thing over and over every year and expect different results. When par score in 50 overs cricket is 300 plus runs, we are struggling to make 200 runs. This is a wakeup call to our selectors, please get it right next year. It is time for us to win the Regional 50 over tournament. It is long overdue.
Thank You.
Yours Faithfully,
Imtiaz Bacchus.

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