Dear Editor,
The current regional 50 overs and four-day tournament has been a disappointment for Guyana’s national senior team so far, languishing at the bottom of the points standing for most of their sojourn.
Neither the batting nor bowling has been revealing except for Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s century in a losing cause against Trinidad and Tobago, Leon Johnson’s assured half centuries without converting to the elusive three figures and sporadic bowling success for the captain Veerasammy Permaul. Not surprisingly it was Chanderpaul, Deonarine and Permaul who were selected for the West Indies to compete against the visiting Zimbab-weans.
This is quite a dramatic turnaround given the team’s sensational display en route to the finals of the last T20 tournament. While I believe that the unstable administrative environment has negatively impacted on the psyche of the players due to the uncompromising governance issues between the IMC and GCB; their performance can be viewed as generally poor, a reflection of their run of consistently poor scores while the fielding also has been lethargic at times. Certainly the preparation has not been ideal both from a technical and mental perspective, a process that should be reviewed even at this time for the benefit of enhancing the general capability of the team.
I remain very optimistic however about the prospects of Tagenarine Chanderpaul becoming a world class player. His current performance, though not quite assertive, is a reflection of the selectors’ faith in investing in him at such a young age. It is a bold initiative which must now be extended to arguably two of Guyana’s finest talents in Chanderpaul Hemraj and Ricardo Adams. Hemraj has played for Guyana before but he is currently discarded while Adams was selected in the one day squad but he is still to make his debut. Both are unique players with Hemraj perhaps gaining inspiration from his renowned namesake Shivnarine Chanderpaul since he carbon copies the mode of play of the great West Indian while Adams certainly could not have done the same with Jimmy Adams, in fact he is the opposite since his aggressive display more mirrors that of Adam Gilchrist, the former dominant Australian wicketkeeper/batsman.
The team will now have an opportunity to play at home and the selectors should invest in the young players of the future since placing them in more familiar conditions can be a positive step towards their integration and success. In fact Hemraj has been prolific in the domestic competition and Rayon Griffith, the senior chairman of selectors would have had first-hand knowledge of this since he competes as well at the first division level. While I do not envisage drastic changes to the team it will be an ideal opportunity to invest in the promising talent of Chanderpaul Hemraj and Ricardo Adams for the remainder of the tournament.
Yours faithfully,
Elroy Stephney