The opening day of the three-day practice game at the Guyana National Stadium Providence, scheduled by the Interim Management Com-mittee (IMC) ahead of the Regional four-day tournament which bowls off on Friday, was washed out without a ball being bowled, due to persistent rainfall throughout the day.
Weather permitting, play is expected to resume today from 10:00 am and, according to Coach Mark Harper, depending on the circumstances, they will decide whether to restart the game totally or just play out the remaining two days.
When this newspaper visited the ground yesterday afternoon, the same amount of players and reserve members from the previously selected 14-man final squad and 30-man training squad was seen leaving the venue in the team bus.
The full IMC 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.
Meanwhile, it was reported that a majority of the 14-man selected by the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) attended a general meeting at the Chetram Singh Centre of Excellence La Bonne Intention, yesterday.
Although the media was not allowed to attend the meeting, an insider who wished to remain anonymous, told this newspaper that it was a routine GCB, private general meeting which normally takes place before any major tournament.
The source also revealed of their selected 14-man squad all the players with the exception of test veteran Chanderpaul, who is in Bangladesh for that country’s Premier League T20 competition, and is likely to miss Guyana’s opening game, and three other players were absent.
The source said he wished not to reveal their names since the GCB did not want to have any player victimised given the present atmosphere.
“Only three of the players did not show up, but we preferably would wish not to state who they are since we don’t want to make any player feel threatened in this current climate.
Two of the players reportedly gave excuses but not the third player.
It was also suggested by the source that it was unlikely that Sarwan will be a part of their selected squad since he has communicated with the GCB since his return.
Sarwan is likely to be replaced by Under-19 batsman Chanderpaul Hemraj, said the source adding that in the event that Chanderpaul will participate in the BPL, Berbice all-rounder Royston Crandon will be his replacement.
