Guyana Jaguars Captain Vishaul Singh believes his side is closer than ever to winning the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Professional Cricket League Regional Four-day title, following their successful run in the competition to date.
When Singh sat down with Stabroek Sport at the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) Pavilion yesterday he lauded the team’s hard work and heaped praise on the coach and manager for the efforts being put into preparations. He is optimistic that they will resume with the same positive tone when the tournament reconvenes next year.
“Definitely, I think if any season we can win the title it’s this year after having suffered a setback such as the loss we had against Barbados. We bounced back and showed a lot of character. We are playing excellent cricket and if we can get our three senior players in Leon Johnson, Assad Fudadin and Shiv Chanderpaul back, I definitely think we can win,” Singh said.
The Jaguars returned home yesterday afternoon following their fourth round innings and 60-run thumping of the Trinidad and Tobago Red Force on Monday. They will now take a much needed holiday as they bask in the success of a commanding 57 points lead at the top of the points table.
Singh credits his team’s fighting spirit for the success they have so far achieved. After their two-run nightmare defeat at the hands of the Bajans, the team was still struggling to regain their focus when they left for Trinidad and Tobago last week to face the Red Force, he said.
“Coming off of the loss, the team’s plan was to put that behind them and move forward as a unit. We were playing good cricket throughout the tournament, we just had a bad session against Barbados but the guys showed a lot of character, especially the batsmen,” he said. Other than Narsingh Deonarine who has two centuries under his belt so far, the captain believes that his other batsmen are now scratching the surface of their batting form. “The batting performance showed a lot of character, because the same batsmen who were bowled out for 66 a week ago returned to pile on 492 runs,” he explained. “Young (Shimron) Hetmyer played well at number three for his 30 before he was out. (Rajendra) Chandrika who has been making starts finally broke the half-century mark and made 60, Raymon Reifer was involved in a key partnership with [me also] batted well and was patient in waiting for the bad balls while Chrissy (Barnwell) batted well for his half-century along with (Veerasammy) Permaul who we all know can bat. Even (Devendra) Bishoo who was night-watchman, was good.”
However, Singh was the monster in the match. His performance rang true to Chairman of Selectors and team Manager Rayon Griffith’s prediction that he would be the “small axe” to watch. The 25-year-old scored his maiden first-class century, 145 which was the foundation of his team’s total.
When asked about the motivation for scoring his first century after playing more than 10 first-class games, a humble Singh said he relied on inner strength, disputing the perception that criticism helped him to find the fire to score his first hundred. “I motivated myself, they say motivation comes from within and that’s where I got mine from. I want my team and country to do well and as captain I know if I do well my country will do well,” he said. “After waiting 15 first-class games for my first century playing for Guyana is a joyous occasion for me, all I want to do is to continue in the same vein and do well for my country.”
The GCC player also praised his bowling department for their performances throughout the competition. “Four games and our bowlers took 20 wickets and on a Trinidad track that was good for batting, the bowlers put in a lot of hard work to take 20 wickets,” he said. The national captain also expressed his gratitude to the team’s coaching staff who has been working with the players from the start of the training camp two months ago. “We have our Coach Esuan (Crandon) who has a lot of experience; he imparts his knowledge into the team while our Manager Rayon Griffith is a hard worker and works hard because he wants his team to do well,” he said.
The teams will now look to shift formats as they prepare for January’s NAGICO Regional Super 50 in Trinidad, after which they will complete the final leg of the four-day tourney.
