Today the 24-man Demerara Under-23 cricket squad will be trimmed to the 14 players who will oppose Berbice Under-23 side in two matches for the Colin Wilshire and Leslie Amsterdam trophies.
The matches will be held on Friday at the Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) ground and on September 29 in Berbice.
Already, manager of the team Raymond Barton, said he envisages difficulties in arriving at the right combination with the amount of talent in the squad. Barton, like coach Garvin Nedd, pointed out though, that this might be the impetus for the Demerara side to beat the Berbicians who have been winning almost every competition.
Yesterday the squad went through its first net session and according to Barton the selection panel will be looking at the fitness of the players and their present and past performances in the tournaments.
From a cursory observation Barton said that he is pleased with the fitness of the players and he is optimistic that whichever combination of players is selected they will produce solid performances for the team.
He indicated that Demerara has a good crop of players and much is expected from them. He singled out senior players such as Shemroy Barrington, Trevon Griffith, Vishaul Singh and Rajendra Chandrika, who can all play major roles in the two games that will be played on a home and away format.
Nedd said that the focus of yesterday’s session and the sessions thereafter will be on assessing and improving the fitness levels of the players. Further, he said that attention will be on ironing out some minor technical flaws.
He posited that fitness will play a major part if Demerara is going to beat Berbice and said from his assessment the players are in good shape. Nedd, who turned 38 yesterday, stated though that the players will have to execute the team’s strategies properly to ensure wins.
He echoed the sentiments of Barton when he said that the senior players will have to lead from the front and the batsmen will have to readjust themselves to the 50-over format of the game. He pointed out that he wants his charges to score at a higher percentage and eliminate too many dot balls.
Further he emphasized that he wants his players to “bat as deep as possible” and ensure that partnerships and their application at the crease and in the field are solid.
On the other hand, Nedd maintained that this tournament is a good initiative for the players to stay in the game and it is his belief that the matches will be keenly contested. Meanwhile, President of the Demerara Cricket Board (DCB) Bissoondyal Singh told Stabroek Sport that he is urging all members of the 24-man squad to turn out for the sessions, which will end tomorrow, to ensure that they are given a fair chance at making the final 14.
Singh also urged the players to take the sessions seriously so that they will go into the matches on a positive note.
‘Cheesy’ Singh recently returned from the United Kingdom where he played for county side Kent. He also broke the Kent League record of 1012 runs set by former Australian Test batsman Justin Langer.
Also in that lineup are Chandrika, who returned from the Canadian Summer Cricket Festival where he played for the Sagicor High Performance Centre, West Indies under-19 opening batsman Griffith and professional cricketers who play in Trinidad & Tobago Travis Blyden, Kellon Carmichael and Elton Baker.
Some other standouts in the squad are national under-19 bowlers Amir Khan, Seon Daniels and Andre Stoll. The captain will be named on Thursday.
Squad: Shemroy Barrington, Trevon Griffith, Wasim Haslim, Christopher Pattadin, Mark Rhobe, Vishal Singh, Rajendra Chandrika, Travis Blyden, Elton Baker, Troy Gonsalves, Danny Narayan, Jeetendra Sookdeo, Videsh Lall, Amir Khan, Totaram Bishun, Christopher Surat, Kellon, Carmicheal, Andre Stoll, Seon Daniels, Joseph Perry, Denver Greaves, Dexter Solomon, Dellon Heyliger, Sureshpaul Deosarran, Raj Nanan and Krishna Deosarran.
