After sitting out last week-end’s final round of matches hoping for favourable results, a 71-run victory by Barbados over the Windward Islands on Saturday confirmed Guyana’s progress into the semi-finals of the West Indies Cricket Board’s 2011/12 Regional Four-day competition.
The semi-finals will take placed this weekend and will see Guyana taking on the defending champions Jamaica from March 30-April 2 in Jamaica.
Guyana, who drew with Trinidad in Port-of-Spain in their final preliminary round encounter thanks mainly to Assad Fudadin’s second century of the competition, ended on 39 points from their six matches.
And, Victories for Barbados and Trinidad in last weekend’s final round matches meant that Guyana finished fourth in the points standings.
Meanwhile an earlier report carried by this newspaper which stated thatleg-spinner Devendra Bishoo was likely to return to the Guyana squad pending confirmation of their semi-final place, given his exclusion from the West Indies Twenty20 squad for the ongoing home series versus Ausralia has been confirmed.
Young batsman Chanderpaul Hemraj and fast-bowler Ronsford Beaton have also been included in the squad instead of going to the West Indies Under-19 training squad.
The three players have been named in Guyana’s 13-man squad sanctioned by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) yesterday.
The team will continue under the leadership of Shivnarine Chanderpaul and the management staff of coach Esaun Cradon, assistant coach David Harper and mamaneger David Black.
The team will be without former West Indies middle order batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan who had to pull out of the team to fulfill his commitments with English club Leicestershire.
A WICB press release yesterday relating to decisions made during Saturday’s board of directors meeting in St. Lucia, stated:“With regard to the Guyana team’s participation in the WICB Regional 4 Day Tournament the Board directed the WICB management to put a process in place to ensure that a representative Guyana team endorsed by the WICB can continue to participate in the tournament.”
The Guyana team is expected to play Tamar Lambert’s Jamaicans in Kingston and according to sources will be leaving the country later this evening or early tomorrow morning.
Guyana 13-man squad: Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Devendra Bishoo, Trevon Griffith, Narsingh Deonarine, Assad Fudadin, Leon Johnson, Veerasammy Permaul, Christopher Barnwell, Royston Crandon, Derwin Christian, Chanderpaul Hemraj, Brandon Bess, Ronsford Beaton.
Regional four-day points standings at the close of the third day at the close of third day between Jamaica vs Combine Campuses and Colleges fixture:
