By Marlon Munroe
Guyana Cricket Board’s recently appointed High Performance Analyst Robin Singh described Guyana’s standard of cricket yesterday as rubbish.

Stabroek Sport caught up with Singh yesterday at the Guyana National Stadium where he is currently conducting an elite training programme for senior and national cricketers in the country.

National coach Rabindranauth Seeram is also involved with the programme and the idea came about after the recently-concluded first class season when it was realized that there was no concerted effort to improve the state of the game in the country.

More particularly, Singh believes that many have the misguided perception that launching and playing many competitions is development of the game, which has experienced tumultuous times for the past few years. He is adamant that there are too many competitions being played and not much focus is being paid on improvement of the cricketers and most importantly the game.

“We are playing so many cricket competitions; everybody wants to run a competition. Everybody seems to think development means we play 600 competitions which is nonsense. All we are playing is rubbish cricket and rubbish cricket honestly is the only way to describe the cricket at this time; too much rubbish cricket,” Singh declared.

Singh believes that the plethora of competitions is not the solution. However, he maintains that if the GCB can forge corporate ties then there can be some results, especially since many of the locally-based national players have decided to show the commitment to improving their games.

He contends also that if a professional league is formed before the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Regional one-day tournament later this year then Guyana can yield better results, especially since the country finished  in the last and penultimate positions for the past two years.

He said that the product is the players and they will show corporate Guyana that they have dedicated themselves to the game, and by extension, they are willing to stay at home.

“These are pioneer players; they have actually made sacrifices and they have not been pampered by anybody and they are out in the hot sun and working. Now, people can see that they’re serious and that this is their profession and they got to be paid or they will go out there (overseas) and look for a chance because everybody has to make a living,” the former West Indies regional analyst said.

He thinks that a 20-man squad can form a professional team and he thinks that businesses can invest in four teams of 20 players so that there is always a pool of players to choose from.

Meanwhile, Singh said that he has been reviewing tapes from previous training camps and games for some of the country’s top players and yesterday he took the first steps of correcting some of the mistakes of the players. He pointed out that out of favour Guyanese and West Indies batsman Leon Johnson, who was dropped from Guyana’s team after a string of bad performances, batted for two hours the previous day and faced over 800 balls.

This, Singh said, was a means of carefully assessing the faults so that corrective measures can be put in place for the batsman.

He also stated that training will be systematic because one day the aim is to work on their strengths and another day is to take them out of their comfort zone.

The players have been working on the concrete strip at the stadium with the bowling machine set at different speeds and to perform movements with the ball.

Singh quipped that the camp is serious business and therefore the players are doing what is required of them.

“When we were on tour Seeram and I sat with each player to have a one-on-one on where their cricket is and what they want done from the coaching end. And everybody stated that there was too much of a slack period between tournaments,” Singh revealed.

Singh said that although players may go to Trinidad & Tobago to play cricket in many cases they are not working on their game they are just playing for money. Singh expressed disenchantment that in more ways than one players are not being helped by the board.

Singh stated, “I told them to reach me half way and I am sure after this week with the turn out and the kind of work we will be doing they

(players) will be inspired.”

On the other hand, he said that West Indies under-19 opening batsman Trevon Griffith has not been moving his foot early in the innings. And more than likely opposing bowlers will notice this flaw and Griffith can become a regular candidate for lbw.

He said that with the help of Seeram and other players in the camp, who are themselves coaches, they will provide the requisite assistance to their fellow players.

Singh also expressed his thanks to the Manager of the stadium Anthony Xavier who has afforded them the facility without any hassle.