The Guyana under-17 cricketers under the guidance of Coach Gavin Nedd stepped up their preparation for the regional under-17 tournament next week in Trinidad and Tobago, with a day of extended net sessions at the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) Ground, Bourda yesterday.
In a difficult year for local cricket on the field, senior, under-15 and under-19 level teams have experienced either decent or below par results in competitions.
The senior team, the “Amazon Conquerors”, in recent times were eliminated from the group stage of January’s Regional Twenty20 in Antigua, failed to win a game in four-day competition and got to the semi-final stage of the Regional Super50 hosted here in Guyana in October.
The under-15 team finished 3rd in the regional under-15 tournament in Trinidad in July and the under-19s placed fourth in both the three-day and 50 overs formats of that tournament also hosted in Guyana in August.
Those results leave the national under-17 side, in what is the latest West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) tournament (first played in 2010), with a chance to end the cricket calendar with a competition victory for a Guyana side.
Speaking to Stabroek Sport in an interview during the team’s session at Bourda, Coach Nedd expressed his views on the current state of the team and what he expects of them between now and their departure to the twin island republic.
“Today we have started with an intense two-week camp. For the past week or so we have been confined to mainly indoor net sessions at the hostel (Chetram Singh Centre of Excellence at LBI) due to the wet weather conditions. Conditions have been much better today and for the first time we have been able to work on the fielding aspects of our game along with the chance to put the players in some game scenarios,” Nedd explained.
He continued: ”Overall the players have been responding very well and that’s very pleasing. I must also thank coach Orin Bailey for his assistance so far, his coaching expertise is something that players for years, including myself back in my playing days, have been benefiting from and hopefully it will be no different with the under-17 squad.”
When asked if he felt the under-17s are under any sort of pressure to win the regional tournament given some of the indifferent performances of other Guyana teams during the year, Nedd made specific reference to the under-15 and under-19 teams.
“With regards to the youth teams since I am more affiliated with them, in my view what prevented the under-15s and 19s from doing better was little glitches in skill and concentration in the crunch time situations in the matches they played – instead of a gap in talent compared to the other regional teams. This is one area I have placed special emphasis in correcting with this under-17 team and I hope they put it into practice when we get to Trinidad.”
Of the under-17 squad the notable players expected to carry the team are captain and left-arm spinner Gudakesh Motie-Kanhai who played in the Guyana under-19 team this year, Tagenarine Chanderpaul, son of Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Malteenoes leg-spinner who was Guyana’s leading bowler in the under-15 tournament in Trinidad.
Nedd highlighted finally that although spin bowlers traditionally are the main source of wickets at the youth level he is backing young fast bowlers Dexter George and Bernard Bailey to have an impact.
The regional under-17 tournament in Trinidad is from December 10-20.
The full Guyana squad reads: Gudakesh Motie-Kanhai (captain), Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Rickardo Peters, Shimron Hetmeyer, Kemo Paul, Shailendra Shameer, Mark Gonsalves, Arrif Chan, Kemoul Sevory (wicketkeeper), Akshaya Persaud, Steven Sankar,
Dextor George, Bernard Bailey, Sharaz Ramcharran, Alvin Johnson (manager), and Gavin Nedd (coach).
