By Tamica Garnett
Two Saturdays ago the Guyana national cricket team gave a breathtaking performance to conclude the inaugural Caribbean Twenty20 Championship as victors.
Despite entering the tournament with grave uncertainty over their capabilities, the Guyana team thrilled supporters and erased doubts as they ploughed through the tournament one match at a time.
Spearheading the team’s stupendous performance was young Jonathan Foo who locked down his position as one of Guyana’s prime cricketing assets. He is now greatly admired for his performance in the finals which saw Guyana defeating Bardabos by one wicket with one ball to spare.
Foo led Guyana to earn the right to represent the Caribbean at the upcoming Airtel Champions League to be held next month in South Africa. Guyana are the successors to Trinidad and Tobago who led the Caribbean’s entrance into the inaugural tournament last year in India.
Taking a break from his training routine at the National Stadium on Monday, Foo, in an interview with Stabroek Sport, said that he has not always been on the road to glory and confessed that he has faced his bumps along the road.
However, the 19-year-old stressed that he used his failures as stepping stones on his journey to the top.
Foo disclosed that it was compliments of his two uncles that he got into the sport and it was their persistence and the encouragement of others that propelled his career in the sport, eventually leading to his match winning performance.
The nephew of former under-19 players Andy and Michael Chinsammy, Foo says he patterns himself after the great right-handed batsman Kevin Pieterson. Foo says he hopes one day to be the next Pieterson.
“My two uncles, Andy and Michael, were two former Guyanese national players, and they always used to be taking me to cricket matches since I was about eight and then I started playing cricket at the age of 12.
“And since I first started seeing Kevin Pieterson playing cricket, I’ve always said I want to be the next Kevin Peterson,” Foo related.
The Berbician made his debut on the national scene when he was selected at the age of 12 to be part of the Guyana Under-15 team which competed in the West Indies Cricket Board tournament in St Vincent in 2003.
Slowly gaining momentum, Foo graduated from one national junior cricket team to another.
From the under-15 national team, Foo subsequently entered the under-17 and the under-19 national cricket teams, before landing his spot in the national Twenty20 team.
In the under-19 category, Foo was last year honoured as the Most Valued Player of the annual Guyana Cricket Board/GTM Under-19 Inter-county tournament.
And speaking of his latest feat at the Twenty20 tournament, Foo confessed that he had entered the tournament somewhat apprehensive, but once again on the encouragement of those around him, he kept his mind focused on what he needed to do.
Foo said the team captain, Ramnaresh Sarwan told him to just play his natural game.
“Before when I used to play for Guyana I would never do well so I was nervous and talking to Sarwan, who would keep encouraging me to just go out there and to forget about the people who are saying bad things about me and to just go out and play my natural game,” Foo stated.
“And I have to say thanks to my captain, he kept supporting me right through the tournament and through the encampment he kept advising me to keep focused and to just go out there and do my best.”
Also singling out the vice-captain of the team, Royston Crandon, Foo said Crandon also played the role of a guiding light for him when his confidence had began to lapse at the opening of the tournament.
“At the first innings of the first game I was nervous and coming down to the end I was feeling bad and I started missing a couple balls, but then the vice captain, Royston came up and he talked to me and told me to just do what I could, to do my best and don’t change anything. And I got over my nervousness by just keeping positive,” Foo recalled.
“After the first three games I played, and I played the most important roles in the game I started to feel really good at the end of the tournament.”
Foo says that he is very happy with his performance and very excited about his position as one of the best players on the team.
“And right now I’m very excited about being considered the most talented player on the team and I’m just looking forward to going to South Africa and to keep doing well,” Foo said.
Regarding the upcoming game in South Africa, Foo said that he believes that the team had trained hard for their win at the Twenty20 tournament and he hopes that nothing changes as they prepare for their next feat.
“We deserve it because we trained hard, we went out and we won each game. We didn’t lose a single game and we deserve this chance. And I know this will be a higher level of cricket, but you have to go out there and try and do your best and don’t change the game,” he stated.
Trinidad last time around had set the bar very high for the Caribbean region when they made it all the way to the final of the tournament and Foo stated his confidence in himself and his teammates to live up to those standards.
On a closing note, Foo said:“I would advise young cricketers to stay focused and to train hard and to not just play Twenty20 cricket but to strive to play Test cricket.”
