Young Warriors, winners of last year’s million dollar Shapoorji/Pallonji Twenty20 competition will take on the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) in the first competitive match at the new National Stadium at Providence today.
Both teams will get an opportunity to put their younger players on display, fielding line ups somewhat different from the teams that competed in last year’s competition as several key players are missing because of overseas or national commitments.
Still available for GCC, however, are batsmen Ricardo Jadunauth, Ravi Sarwan, Vishal Singh, Robin Bacchus, and Jetendra Sookdeo along with all-rounders Paul Bevan Trevor Henry and Waslim Haslim.
Wicket-keeper Tyrell Tull who injured his knee during the last stages of the Stanford Twenty20 tournament in Antigua last year and had surgery in October, could be making his return in this match while Treon Forde, who has been doing regular duty behind the stumps, is also available.
Skipper Jason Benn will share the new ball with Trevor Henry backed up by Bevaun, while former under-19 off-spinner Cleon Belgrave will get support from Sarwan and Jadunauth in the spin department.
GCC will be without former West Indies pacer Reon King and Azeemul Haniff who are in St Vincent and the Grenadines with the Guyana team, former West Indies all-rounder Neil McGarrell and former West Indies U-19 captain Leon Johnson who are playing professionally in Trinidad.
Young Warriors will be relying on openers Farouk Husain and Anthony D’Andrade, batsmen Anil Beharry, Ishwar Singh, and skipper Hubern Evans to shepherd their younger charges in this encounter.
The national Twenty20 champs will be without U-19 player-of-the-year Gajanand Singh, opener Richard Ramdeen, all-rounder and former Guyana captain Damodar Daesrath and pacers Paul Wintz, Brendon Bess and Quacy Maltay who are all playing professionally in Trinidad.
It is fitting that these two clubs, semi-finalists in the Shapoorji/Palloonji competition should meet in the first competitive match at the new facility. When Alok Banarjee of Shapoorji/Pallonji, the company that built the new cricket facility, launched the $10 million dollar Twenty20 competition in January of last year, the semi-finals and final were supposed to be the first matches played at the stadium.
Richard Haniff, marketing manager of the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) informed Stabroek Sport yesterday that no more tickets were available for this Twenty20 match.
A limited number of tickets were printed and they have already been distributed, Haniff said.
The LOC it is advising patrons not to purchase tickets as they were given out to various entities to be distributed free of charge. The authorities also add that no one will be admitted to the stadium without a ticket or accreditation.
The teams will be selected from, Young Warriors Hubern Evans (captain) Ishwar Singh, Farouk Hussain, Nedsesh Basdeo, Mark Henriques, Randolph Baker, Wahid Edwards, Seon Hetemeyer, Charran Singh, Anthony D’Andrade, Justin Bess, Chetram Seepersaud and Kevin Ramdeen. Sahadeo Singh is the manager
GCC (from) Jason Benn (captain) Ravi Sarwan, Ricardo Jadunauth, Vishal Singh, Robin Bacchus, Jeetendra Sookdeo, Paul Bevaun, Trevor Henry, Tyrell Tull, Treon Forde, Cleon Belgrave, Wasim Haslim, and Shivanand Shivram. Ivor Mendonca is the manager.
