Yesterday’s five wicket defeat of the national side by the Windward Islands in the second round of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) regional 4-Day competition is cause for concern. What makes the defeat particularly galling is that almost the entire first day’s play was lost to rain yet the Windwards still managed to triumph an hour after lunch on yesterday’s fourth and final day. Those looking for excuses can point to the fact that the team was not at full strength missing Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who is participating in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) and Ramnaresh Sarwan, who is at home and who opted out of the team for reasons known only to himself.
They might also argue, and rightfully so, that the team did not have proper preparation before the tournament mainly because of the impasse between the government-appointed Interim Management Committee (IMC) and the West Indies Cricket Board- recognized Guyana Cricket Board (GCB).
They can also point out that the Windwards were at full strength with the return of West Indies skipper Darren Sammy who missed his team’s opening game against Jamaica.
But a look back will show that the Windward Islands have been getting the better of representative Guyana national teams for sometime now. They won on first innings in their drawn encounter in February of 2010 when they scored 462 with Devon Smith getting 193 in reply to Guyana’s 452 of which Sarwan made 116. They then trounced Guyana by four wicketsin last year’s four-day game they won by four wickets. Scores in that match were Guyana: 142 and 138; Windwards 223 and 60-6.
Chasing a paltry 58 runs for victory, spinners Veerasammy Permaul and Devendra Bishoo had the Windwards tottering on 35-6 before Garey Mathurin and Liam Sebastian formalized the result. As recently as last month in the West Indies Cricket Board’s Group `A’ match of the Caribbean T20 tournament, the Windwards eliminated Guyana from the competition.
Having already gained a superior net run rate, the Windwards reached 119-5 to win by the Duckworth/Lewis method after Guyana had posted 140-8 off their allotted 20 overs. The Windwards also defeated Guyana by two runs in last year’s WICB T20 competition making 138-8 and restricting Guyana to 136-9 in a nail biting encounter.
Given the fact that Guyana has lost regularly to the Windward Islands in recent times in all three forms of the game it can be safe to say that the Guyanese have now become the Windwards’ whipping boys. In this year’s four-day tournament the team lost simply because they batted badly in both innings.
The fact that cricket in this country, which has a reputation for producing some of the greatest batsmen in the history of the game, namely Rohan Kanhai, Clive Lloyd, Basil Butcher, Roy Fredericks, Stephen Camacho, Carl Hooper and Len Baichan, has deteriorate to such an extent that players whose averages are in the early 20s are afforded regular time at the crease for Guyana is nothing but a travesty. Our columnist Tony Cozier, on Sunday, pointed out the obvious but startling fact that this year’s competition has produced a number of poor batting performances by some of the teams in the competition, the worst being the Leeward Islands all out 39 against Trinidad and Tobago which resulted in them losing the match inside two days. Often the poor batting in the regional competition is transferred to the Test and One-Day arenas.
In Guyana, the standard of first-class cricket has dropped considerably to such an extent that the Chairman of the West Indies selection panel, Clyde Butts, could easily make the Guyana team by his performances had he not retired. Butts continues to bamboozle the batsmen and contributes often with the ball and bat to his team’s successes whenever he plays.
This year, perhaps because of the impasse, there has been no first class or any cricket for that matter in Demerara and possibly Essequibo although cricket has already commenced in Berbice. The grounds too are not in order.
This lack of a well organized, first class season, where emphasis is placed on improving the standard of cricket, is compounded by the fact that many of the local cricketers ply their trade in Trinidad and Tobago where they can eke out a better living. Neither the GCB nor the government seem interested in arresting this development or improving the local cricket infrastructure, making it more attractive to the players, which could pave the way for them to remain at home and hone their talents ultimately leading to better fortunes for the national team. A radical overhaul of Guyana’s cricket structure is needed at this point and a feasibility study to this effect should be commissioned immediately before it is too late.
Or perhaps it already is.
