Heavy and persistent rain on Wednesday night left the outfield of the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) ground, Bourda inundated, with only the pitch and parts of the 30-yard circle visible up to press time yesterday.
This means that the second round fixture of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) tourney between Guyana and the Leeward Islands, scheduled to start today, will lose the first day and it is unclear whether play will be possible at all since more rain is expected. The Guyanese, who lost their first matchJamaica by 165 runs, and the Leewards, who lost outright to the England Lions, are on four and zero points respectively.
Prior to the rain the two teams conducted training sessions and both were looking to rebound from their first round poor showings. Guyana’s captain Assad Fudadin had stated that the batting was a concern but there were some improvements, citing the work of his bowlers.
He had indicated that this is the sort of energy he wants to see from his players throughout the tournament. Further, Fudadin would be looking to rebound from his team’s defeat. In his first outing as captain, after replacing Ramnaresh Sarwan, he said that they were some challenging periods especially during the innings of Jamaican Marlon Samuels who made an impressive 250 on his return to First Class cricket.
He was concerned though that many of the batsmen did not convert their starts in the match against Jamaica and no doubt all eyes would have been on the team to win on home soil.
Fudadin praised his bowlers for the excellent job in restricting Jamaica to a meagre total in the first innings before going on to take first innings points.
On the other hand, the Leeward Islands would have been looking to bounce back against the Guyanese, who have put on a poor show at this tournament for the past two years.
Meanwhile, the senior selection committee of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) met yesterday to pick the squad for this match. Gajanand Singh is now back in the squad in place of Leon Johnson, who sprained a finger during practice on Wednesday.
Guyana’s 13-man squad reads: Assad Fudadin (captain), Devendra Bishoo, Rajendra Chandrika, Shemroy Barrington, Steven Jacobs, Derwin Christian, Royston Crandon, Veerasammy Permaul, Brandon Bess, Ronsford Beaton, Esaun Crandon, Vishal Singh and Gajanand Singh.
