Ashmead Nedd moving up the cricketing ladder Should join dad as father/son pair to play FC Cricket

Jun 23, 2020 Sports

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By Sean Devers

There are many Guyanese brothers who played first-Class cricket but since 1966 when Guyana gained Independence, Shiv Chanderpaul and his son are the only father/son pair to play First-Class cricket.

The feat was even more remarkable since they both played in the same match joining the Trinidadian Father/Son pair of Sir Leary Constantine and his as dad as the only other father/son pair to play together in the same game in West Indies Cricket.
At 19, Ashmead Nedd, was selected for the Leewards Hurricanes in the 2020-2021 West Indies Professional Players Draft for the Colonial Medical Insurance Super50 and four-day PCL tournament for the upcoming season.
He will hope to join his dad, former First-Class off-spinner Garvin Nedd who took 29 wickets from 14 games between 1995 and 2000 as the only other Guyanese father and son pair to play at the First-Class level.
Born on January 10, 2001 in Georgetown to Garvin and Roxanne Nedd, Ashmead grew up in Albertown and attended the St Gabriel’s Primary and later Tutorial High and Chase Academy.
Ashmead literally grew up at DCC in Queenstown, a club which Lance Gibbs, Clive Lloyd and Roy Fredericks, three of the greatest West Indies Test players called ‘home’.
He loves playing football and represented Tutorial High in the Digicel School’s Football competition. Ashmead was also outstanding with both bat and ball in the National Secondary School’s Cricket League as he helped Chase Academy to North Georgetown Zone title.
Ashmead played his debut first division match for DCC against Police when he was only 13 and since then his cricket has progressed at a rapid rate.

When he was 14, Ashmead had his first taste of international conditions when the Tony Hartford U-17 Academy team of Trinidad & Tobago toured New Zealand.
Ashmead represented Guyana at U-15, 17 and 19 levels and played in two U-19 World Cups (2018 & 2020) before making his Regional 50-over debut in last year’s Super50 for the eventual Champions West Indies Emerging Players.
In six List ‘A’ games Ashmead has taken 11 wickets with a best bowling of 4-29 in the semi-finals of the Super50 at an Average of 10.27 and an economy rate of 3.27 which was the second lowest in the entire tournament behind his team-mate Kevin Sinclair.
Ashmead participated in the Tri-Nation U-19 tournament involving host West Indies, Sri Lanka and England just after the Super50.
The youngster said he found out of his selection when he saw it on the CWI twitter account that he had been selected for the Leeward Island Hurricane.
Ashmead says he gained mostly experience from playing in last year’s Colonial Medical Super50 Cup tournament in Trinidad.
“I have learnt a lot from the Super50, playing against senior players like Daren Bravo, Jason Mohammed …. looking at them, they are batsman who can attack and defend at the times…it was looking and observing and learning as quickly as possible.

And going into the World Cup even though it was different conditions, I went with the same mentality, same belief that …yeah I will do this.
At first the conditions were challenging but after adapting to conditions it became easier,” said the former Guyana and West Indies U-19 left-arm spinner.
“Going into the Leewards Islands Hurricanes set-up, I will work on bowling at a slower pace now that I have gotten the opportunity to play four-day cricket because I haven’t played any red ball cricket for the past year or so. I have played mostly one-day cricket so I have to change over to something different.
I prefer to play any format once the opportunity comes for me to play. To be honest I like one-day more but I am getting the chance to play four-day and that is great for me,” the for Demerara U-19 Captain disclosed.
He says he sets goals but don’t really like saying what they are, explaining that he goes out and play ‘free minded’ and tries to enjoy the game and do his best for the team.
“I was not too surprised to be selected knowing that I had a good Super50 and U-19 World Cup. Looking at my stats I knew that one of the Islands or teams would pick me up in the draft,” a confident Ashmead stated.

“Personally I think the Franchise and club cricket in Guyana isn’t that much competitive, it’s very far away from places like Trinidad where their club system is much better. It’s more challenging there since they have so many players going to play there. Here in Guyana we don’t find that much competition in club cricket, especially in Georgetown,” said the hard working teenager.
He spoke about what he feels it will take for him to settle into a new environment living in the Leewards Islands.
“Well, heading into a professional set-up there are things you have to learn to deal with quickly. I think I will be ready and up for it. It’s about being mature and knowing how to handle yourself at a young age…. moving to another Country, a new environment, new people, it’s a lot of things you will have to learn.
I think the biggest challenge for me is playing First-Class cricket. That’s a standard just under Test Cricket so it prepares you mentally, physically and technically. Playing First-Class cricket can be tough but the biggest challenge for at first will be the mental part,” said Nedd, whose favourite cricketer is Shakib Al Hassan.
“I’d consider myself a bowling all-rounder. In the modern cricket you have to be capable of bringing something else to your game. Yes, I do bat in the nets, batting is something I work on every day,” said Nedd who is one step closer to playing four-day cricket in the PCL.
Garvin Nedd, one of best off-spinners after the Butts and Harper era, is very proud of his son’s achievement.
“As a parent and a Coach I am very proud of Ashmead success. I never told him to play cricket he just picked up a bat when he was very young and got hooked on the game and once I noticed his interest in wanting to play it seriously, I stepped in as both a father and a Coach,” said the 47-year-old who is also a National Youth Coach.

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