In what can be described as an interesting game of “cricket musical chairs”, 24 hours after the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) named its Guyana squad for the opening regional four-day encounter against the Leeward Islands next Friday, the Interim Management Committee (IMC) named an identical squad – but with controversially discarded senior West Indies middle-order batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan as its skipper.
The squad reads: Ramnaresh Sawan (captain), Rajendra Chandrika, Sewnarine Chattergoon, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Narsingh Deonarine, Leon Johnson, Assad Fudadin, Christopher Barnwell, Darwin Christian, Devendra Bishoo, Veerasammy Permaul, Brandon Bess, and Ransford Beaton
Under the guidance of coach Mark Harper, Chairman of selectors Roger Harper, Manager Carl Moore, former national fast-bowler Roderick Lovell and trainers Orin Bailey, Kezqweyah Yisrael and Noshavyah King a few members of the selected 14 member unit along with some stand-by players such as Sarwan, Leon Johnson, Devendra Bishoo, Christopher Barnwell, Derwin Christian, Veerasammy Permaul, Trevon Griffith, Shemroy Barrington, Amir Khan, Rajendra Chandrika, Richard Ramdeen, Paul Wintz, Raj Nanan, had a day of physical fitness and net sessions at the Providence National Stadium that concluded around 5:00pm.
Speaking to the media after the team’s session, coach Harper said, “Obviously anyone who has been around cricket knows that having one week and probably just one practice game to prepare for a three-month regional first-class tournament is not at all ideal. “But unfortunately, due to the circumstances that we are all aware of, that is what the coaching staff and players have to deal with, so we just have to make sure we do what we can to get the team ready for the opening game in this short space of time,” Harper added.
“We, technically, began our preparations yesterday, but rain curtailed us. Today (yesterday) though, we had fitness, net, fielding and fitness sessions. Starting tomorrow we will have a three-day practice game, after that the players have optional pool and fitness sessions on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we will back hard in the nets and of course in between all of this meetings and mental preparation sessions will be conducted.”
Harper noted that the 14-man squad presuming all eventually turn up is very experienced. “We have a lot of experience in the selected squad. Sarwan for one is back as you can see and based on what I saw of him today I would say he is pretty fit and the seasoned spin duo of Bishoo/Permaul know their way around regional cricket.
“Bishoo for one in my view will be a big player for us given his rise in West Indies cricket in the last year since he was called up for the World Cup during our match against Barbados.”
When asked to comment on the impasse between the IMC and GCB, Harper declined but stated that in his capacity as coach he has been telling the players who have shown up to simply focus on their preparation for a likely game that’s coming.
“Currently I have been telling the players today to prepare as if they are playing for a tournament and not to worry about what those above us are doing. Let those officials handle their side of things,” stated Harper.
Finally when asked if he is disappointed by the turnout so far he answered in the affirmative, but remained optimistic that more will join in the coming days. “You reporters know it would be ideal to have everyone at these sessions, but at the end of the day I can’t control that. If three guys turn up I will work with them, which is all I can do from my standpoint. The numbers are growing everyday, however, so maybe in the coming days the full quota of players will follow the lead of the current crop and turn up.”
One of the more pleasing sights to Guyanese fans would be to see Ramnaresh Sarwan around, who in controversial circumstances was left out of Guyana’s squad during the just-concluded disappointing Caribbean Twenty20 campaign in Antigua and Barbados.
The stylish 31-year old right-hander whose career has seen him play 87 tests, 173 one-day internationals and 18 T20 internationals – in which his last competitive game was during the third test versus India last July, also spoke the media and while he echoed much of coach Harper’s views on the team preparation he gave some different thoughts of his own about the team’s chances in the four-day tournament and his own personal situation.
“Obviously a lot of stuff is going on with Guyana cricket right now and it’s important that the players get their minds together in this short preparation time that we have. I don’t think at least fitness will be a major issue for once, since most of the guys played in the Caribbean T20. I think one potential early advantage we may have is that we are playing our first four games at home. So hopefully game-by-game we would be able to make use of this home advantage,” reasoned Sarwan whose highest first class score is 291 vs England in 2009.
Finally when asked about himself and his personal ambition for the tournament to potentially break back into the West Indies team, Sarwan gave a positive outlook on the former and a caution regarding the latter.
“I’m pretty good actually. Obviously I haven’t played competitive cricket for a long time, but I have been doing a lot of running in recent weeks and had a good few net sessions. But generally I’m great, some slight fatigue crept in today after the physical work we did, but I’m confident come the start of tournament I’ll be ready mentally and physically.
“Right now I’m not thinking that far ahead to West Indies selection, just Guyana and I intend to take it one game at a time, but of course like any batsman in any tournament I would like to score runs.”
The team begins its three-day practice game at the Stadium today, but as things stand though whether this team will actually play is unknown. Sources in the West Indies Cricket Board have told this newspaper in recent days that the WICB will not be accepting an IMC-selected squad although Minister Frank Anthony has suggested he has received no such word from WICB officials in a recent interview with Stabroek Sport.
The GCB has also requested their selected 14-man squad to assemble at the L.B.I. hostel for a team meeting from 11:00am while the WICB has their teleconference to deal with the Guyana stalemate today.
