With their first round match a mere three weeks away, Berbice’s preparation for the upcoming Guyana Cricket Board (GCB)/Castrol-sponsored Under-15 Inter-county tournament intensifies this weekend with a two-day trial match at the Rose Hall Canje Ground. The Berbice Cricket Board of Control (BCBC) Junior cricket selectors have reduced the original squad of 54 players to 26 for this match, which starts at 10:00am both days. The following players are asked to be at the venue by 9:00am daily: Trevor Thomas, Kandasammy Surujnarine, Sachin Dhaniram, Jamal Henry, Rajendra Dasrat, Linden Austin, Davendra Jainabee, Veerapen Permaul, Bisham Persaudie, Mark Basdeo, Quancy McPherson, Romario DeJonge, Llyodel Lewis, Shawn Perriera, Gudakesh Motie, Jamal Jarvis, Videsh Lall, Martyn Weatherspoon, Kevin Ramdeen, Orlando Tanner, Shailendra Shameer, Avinash Wajib, Judason Bess, Brandon Balkissoon, Naem Yacoob and Abdool Sudhan. The 14-man squad would be selected on Sunday, the final day of the match, and will be released at a press conference to be held at the BCBC board office on Monday by Chairman of the Selectors, Leslie Solomon.
Former national under-19 captain Andre Percival and Julian Cambridge have been appointed the coach and manager of the team respectively.
In an invited comment with Stabroek Sport, president of the BCBC Keith Foster stated that the coach will be assigned two other coaches who would assist with the preparation of the team.“Not taking anything away from the assigned coach, the BCBC has decided to appoint two other coaches, who will be working with the designated coach in assisting him in getting the team prepared for this tournament.”
He said further, “The Ministry of Education notified us that we cannot use the boys during school hours, hence this final trial match is being played tomorrow and Sunday. However, we are hoping to have practice sessions with the selected team after school hours at a venue to be decided.”
The tournament is scheduled to commence this month-end, with defending champions Demerara taking on Essequibo on the February 24-25. Essequibo will then face Berbice on the February 27- 28 while Berbice and Demerara will clash in the final round on the March 2-3 respectively.
While all the matches will be played in Demerara no venue has yet been selected.
