Rookie Guyana Jaguars seamer, Nial Smith has come under the radar of Head Coaches, Esaun Crandon and Trinidad and Tobago Red Force’s Mervyn Dillon.
Crandon indicated that Smith, 24, is a tremendous find for the five-time defending champions since their seam department has lost a few players to West Indies duties and Clinton Pestano to injury.
“…Smith has been tremendous so far, on debut five wickets, today [Sunday] five wickets again in the first innings, a good find for us especially after losing a lot of guys, Keemo [Paul] and [Romario] Shepherd and those guys to West Indies, so it is a tremendous find for us…” Crandon stated.
The Jaguars Head Coach and former national fast bowler was adamant about the handling of Smith in order to groom him to transitioning to the highest level.
“Obviously we have to hug him up and keep him in the system and see how best we can support him, he has a lot of good attributes of a fast bowler so it is just for us to put in the fine touches to do better and once he can keep it up with consistent performances, he has a long way to go after then,” he said.
Like Crandon, Dillon, who is a former West Indies seamer saw potential in Smith and stated, “…the first innings he bowled really well and is something we can look forward to in the future.”
Dillon, however, was not one to go out on a limb for the young seamer since, according to him he needs more performances to give a better assessment.
“He looks promising…he bowled well in the first innings, got the ball to do a bit but you know like in the Caribbean we always tend to judge people quickly on one performance and two performance, for me you have to do that consistently well for me to give a better assessment but in this game,” Dillon stated.
Smith has played three first-class matches and captured 16 wickets, averages 16.75 per wicket. On debut, Smith rocked Leeward Islands Hurricanes with 6 for 55 in the first innings and followed up with 5 for 12 against Red Force in his third match.
