Following Guyana’s third place finish in the Cricket West Indies female Under-19 Regional T20 tournament, Head Coach of the team, Bharat Mangru says it is disappointing to finish in that position while calling for more cricket to be played.
Speaking to Stabroek Sport prior to their departure for home from Trinidad and Tobago, Mangru stated:” I think finishing third in the tournament is a bit disappointing.
“I think the team is a better team than that,” he added while stating that the team was a more talented one than last year’s team.
He singled out the heavy number of extras as one of the key areas that attributed to the unsuccessful title bid, pointing out that 30 runs were conceded as extras when they played eventual champions, Trinidad and Tobago in the semi-finals where they lost by nine runs.
“In almost all the games we played we conceded almost 20 extras,” he said adding…”If we could have restricted the amount of extras we gave teams, we could have done far better.”
He indicated that the senior players did not step up in the competition as expected and said that the team failed to score a single run in the 19th over of the semifinal where they required 19 runs from the final two overs.
Nevertheless, Mangru took away some positives from the tour with outstanding individual performances from Mandy Mangru, Cherry Ann Fraser and skipper, Shabika Gajnabi who all earned places in the team of the tournament.
Mangru said that he was also pleased with the bowling performances of Ashmini Munisar and Niveena Ramnauth, since they were on their debut tour and credited the other young players for their “energetic performances” in the field.
Looking to the future, Mangru stressed on the importance of having regular cricket for the females.
“If they play more cricket they will be cricket smart and we can compete better with the other teams in the region,” he said whilst calling on the players to return to their respective clubs and continue to maintain a standard with aspirations of improving every day.
Mangru said the current crop of players could be worked with but said the introduction of age restriction next year will mean younger players will come in the team and have to hit the ground running.
