The national cricket selectors yesterday shortlisted 36 players in two separate squads for next year’s Carib Beer and Stanford Twenty20 tournaments raising quite a few eyebrows in the process with their choices.
They have selected 20 players for the Carib Beer tournament which opens on January 4 with Guyana taking on Trinidad and Tobago and 16 players for the Stanford Twenty20 tournament which runs from January 25 to
February 24 and will be played at the Stanford Cricket Ground in Antigua.
The squad of 16 players which has been selected for the defence of their title includes eight of the players who were a part of the Ramnaresh Sarwan-led team which defeated Trinidad and Tobago to win the inaugural championship last year.
There is no place for Orin Forde and Reon Griffith, two players who were also a part of last year’s squad but did not play in any of the games.
Also unlucky not to be included in the squad which will be trimmed to 13 by January 7 as requested by the Stanford steering Committee, are Essequibo’s Ramesh Narine and Maxie de Jonge of Berbice who both had creditable performances in twenty20 matches recently.
Narine made his debut for Guyana when they opposed team Guyana/USA in a Twenty20 affair at the National Stadium and showed his adaptability to this form of the game, whilst De Jonge got some creditable scores during the recent Carib Beer/Pepsi Inter County twenty20 competition, which was used as a yardstick to select the squad.
The 16-man squad reads: Travis Dowlin, Sewnarine Chattergoon, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Sarwan, Narsingh Deonarine, Lennox Cush, Leon Johnson, Chris Barnwell, Derwin Christian, Esaun Crandon, Neil Mc Garrell, Mahendra Nagamootoo, Dion Ferrier, Royston Crandon, Jeremy Gordon and Z. Mohammed.
The selectors also selected a 20-man squad from which the final 13 will be chosen to contest the Carib Beer regional cricket championship that is set to commence on January 4, when Guyana takes on Trinidad in Trinidad.
With the exception of Chanderpaul, Barnwell, Ferrier, Cush, Mc Garrell and Nagamootoo all of the above mentioned have been included to vie for selection on the Carib Beer team.
Barnwell can consider himself unlucky not to be included in this 20-man squad as his all-round ability can be an asset to the team.
The selectors also displayed clear signals that they were building for the future by opting for youth at the expense of Mc Garrell and Nagamootoo.
National under-17 wicket keeper/batsman Anthony Bramble, who was called in the original 32 players have been left out while Essequibo fast bowler and captain Trevon Garraway has found favour with the selectors.
The 20-man squad reads: Dowlin, E. Crandon, R. Crandon, Gordon, Mohammed, Chattergoon, Sarwan, Christian, Deonarine, Johnson, Assad Fudadin, Gajanand Singh, Veerasammy Permaul, Brandon Bess, Homchand Pooran, Trevon Garraway, Devendra Bishu, Krishna Deosarran, Krishna Arjune and Steven Jacobs.
All players listed are asked to be at the hostel for 1000h on Monday and are advised to walk with their passports.
