National cricket coach Mark Harper is already relishing the prospect of having Shivnarine Chanderpaul in his team for the practice match against Pakistan tomorrow at the Georgetown Cricket Club ground, Bourda.
The former national batsman said yesterday after Guyana’s practice session at the Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) ground that Chanderpaul will not only be appreciated for the contribution that he is likely to make but also his help in guiding the younger players in the team.
Chanderpaul, who is currently embroiled in a war of words with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) CEO Dr. Ernest Hilaire, will be an asset to the team, according to Harper.
Further, Harper, while commenting on Guyana’s poor showing in the WICB Regional First Class tournament earlier this year, said that he hopes that this will change over the next two days playing against the Pakistani team which hadjust wrapped up a 3-2 ODI series win over the West Indies.
The improved batting performance of the team is Harper’s main objective at this time.
He declared that the players are aware of the quality of the opposition. In addition, Harper stated that while the side will be missing key players like Ramnaresh Sarwan, who is with the West Indies team, and opening batsman Rajendra Chandrika, one of Guyana’s leading scorers during the First Class season and currently honouring his commitment to the WICB Sagicor High Performance Centre, other batsmen will have an opportunity to come to the fore.
Guyana will also be missing Veerasammy Permaul, who is also with the HPC.
Harper stated that ideally he would wish that players like Leon Johnson, Narsingh Deonarine and Assad Fudadin step up. That apart, Harper said that there is the inclusion of West Indies Under-19 opening batsman Trevon Griffith, who recently returned from Trinidad & Tobago.
On the other hand, when asked about Christopher Barnwell, who played for West Indies in the T20 International last month, he said that he would prefer not to comment on that. However, he noted that although the Guyana team did not “set ablaze” the Regional four-day tournament, it was good that local players are still catching the attention of the WICB selectors.
The Guyana Cricket Board selectors have also included West Indies player Narsingh Deonarine and West Indies under-19 players Amir Khan, Keon Joseph and Ronsford Beaton in the squad.
Guyana Team: Shemroy Barrington, Trevon Griffith, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Assad Fuddadin, Narsingh Deonarine, Derwin Christian, Amair Khan, Ronsford Beaton, Keon Joseph, Zaheer Mohammed, Gajanand Singh and Leon Johnson.
Standby: Anthony Bramble, Andre Stoll, Paul Wintz, Richard Ramdeen and Steven Jacobs.
