As the buzz surrounding the biggest party in sport – the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) – begins to excite the region, a number of regional players are hoping that they created enough noise to earn a call-up for the Caribbean’s own T20 showpiece event.
One such player is Guyana Jaguars’ skipper Leon Johnson who made his bold intentions known to Stabroek Sport as he banks on his recent white ball form to reignite his CPL career.
Johnson, during the recent Caribbean Super 50 tournament, struck a century (101) for Guyana against Jamaica in the semi-final before Guyana’s loss to the Combined Campus in the Final.
His white ball form continued for his Trinidad club – Central Sports – where he recently scored a T20 century and a 50, after he also struck a century in the National League two-day competition.
It’s house money to assume that he’s in pretty good nick and as expected the 31-year-old is eager to put his good form to use during the upcoming CPL event.
“A call up now would be very good,” he told Stabroek Sport during a recent interview, adding that while his opportunities have been limited, he has had a few good outings.
“My T20 opportunities have been limited over the years even though I do have a few Man-of-the-Match performances when I played…it will be very good if I get a call-up but you know I haven’t played in four years and team selection isn’t up to me…”
Johnson, who has played 14 T20s, made his debut for Guyana in 2012 during the precursor to CPL, the Caribbean T20 championship. The last of his 14 outings was recorded for the Guyana Amazon Warriors in 2014 against the Jamaica Tallawahs.
His highest score is 37, striking at just under 100.
While those numbers do not suggest that he has broken the T20 code, the left-hander, who sports better figures in the longer formats and who is regarded as a stroke maker, isn’t fazed by those who would argue that he is not tailored for T20s.
“That’s people’s opinions,” he noted dismissively.
However, he went on to highlight the unfortunate reality in Guyana where the limited number of T20 tournaments, dent the resume of his and others who have T20 aspirations.
“I think, first of all, more of the cricket needs to be played in Guyana, more of the shorter-format needs to be played for the players to improve. People always say that this guy is not suited and he’s not this… but if you look at it, we don’t play any T20 cricket in Guyana,” Johnson pointed out.
Juxtaposing that to Trinidad, he explained: “As I was just playing in Trinidad they had four different T20 tournaments playing together… and a few private tournaments as well.
“While there, I got a few offers to play in different leagues but obviously, I turned that down because I was committed to one club and I didn’t want to risk injury while playing for somebody I wasn’t there to represent, but I as I said, I think we need to play more T20 cricket in Guyana especially leading up to CPL.
“You see why Trinidad produces so many T20 players? It’s no secret. They play a lot of T20s over there.”
Johnson and the other players will know their fate after tomorrow’s CPL draft.
