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GCA attracting ladies to cricket 45 years after Guyana played first match in Grenada
By Sean Devers
On Wednesday at Malteenoes Sports Club 10 ladies including five from Queen’s College and one from May’s registered for a cricket camp for females between the ages of 12 to 18 years.
The girls registering for the camp at Malteenoes on Wednesday.
The focus is on identifying and developing the talent of females who have the desire to learn and the passion to play representative cricket at the highest level.
The camp is open to females who attend schools or reside in the geographic location of the City or are registered with Cricket Clubs affiliated with the GCA.
The young ladies were welcomed by Georgetown Cricket Association (GCA) President Neil Barry and introduced to the game and what to expect during the programme from Coordinator Clyde Butts, Technical advisors Roger Harper, Shaun Massiah and Deborah McNichol, who is the manager for the programme.
The aim of this programme is to spark female interest in the game of cricket since no female cricket is organised by the Demerara Cricket Board.
The Berbice Cricket Board is the only entity that has female cricketers playing at club level and has produced West Indies players Campbelle, Tremayne Smartt, Eva Giddings, Sheneta Grimmond and the young Sabieka Gajnabi in recent times.
The GCA Camp is a step in the right direction and the first practice session will be held on Saturday 14th May, 2022 at a venue to be announced shortly.
Guyana women’s team in the late 1970s.
Guyana’s Women joined the West Indies domestic structure in 1977, competing in the Federation Championships, in which they finished 4th out of five teams.
Ava Morgan was one of the best female batters in Guyana, while Joni James was a very good Captain and there were players like Margaret Walcott, Dolly Seeraj, Andrea Fowler, Margaret McKenzie, Maimoon Yassin, Sharon Legall and Maylen Ramdular, who celebrates her 71st birthday on May 21 and her 69-year-old sister Phylles Ramdular are the only Guyanese siblings to play cricket together for Guyana Women’s at the senior level, are among those who paved the way for the modern team.
They competed again in the next edition of the tournament, 1980, winning two matches, against Grenada and Barbados.
Guyana eventually re-entered regional women’s cricket for the first time after 20 years in 2001.
Attorney-at-Law Emily Dodson was elected President of Women’s cricket in Guyana and many of the past players returned to action including the Ramdular siblings, Walcott and Janet Jandorie.
However, by 2003, Berbician Angela Haniff was appointed Manager for Guyana’s tour to Grenada. Young emerging talent Indomattie Gordiyal was the leading performer for Guyana, who were led by the multi-talented Diane Ferreira James who also captained Guyana in football.
Guyana was the youngest team in the competition and their lone victory was against the USA.
Guyana have competed in most tournaments since, with a brief hiatus in 2006 and 2007, and joined the Twenty20 Blaze for its inaugural season in 2012.
In 2013, they reached the semi-finals of the T20 competition before losing to eventual winners Jamaica. They achieved their best finish in the 50-over competition in 2014, reaching the final before losing to Jamaica.
In the most recent season, 2019, Guyana finished 4th out of six teams in both competitions.
Among the Guyanese ladies who have played international are Candacy Atkins who played for the West Indies and the USA (2003), Indomattie Goordial-John (2003), Shemaine Campbell (2009), Tremayne Smartt (2009), Subrina Munroe (2010), June Ogle (2011), Erva Giddings (2016), Onika Wallerson who played for the USA (2019), Shabika Gajnabi (2019), Sheneta Grimmond (2019), Cherry-Ann Fraser (2020) and Mandy Mangru (2022).
(Sean Devers)
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