Coach of the Guyana Under-15 side Ryan Hercules said he is satisfied with the team despite a winless run in the Guyana Cricket Board/Bel Air Rubis Under-17 Inter-County tournament.
Twenty players were part of the team, dubbed ‘Select U-15’, but only 14 will compete in the upcoming Regional tournament in Antigua.
The just-concluded Under-17 tournament, will be one of the yardsticks for selection.
Stabroek Sport caught up with the Level Two Coach who reflected on the team’s performance.
“I am happy as the coach,” said Hercules.
“I saw a lot of talent in that bunch both with bat and ball and to play in an Under 17 tournament with boys who are 13-15 years old on my team and actually compete in two of the three games is impressive for me,” he added.
The 32-year-old posited that while there are a lot of positives, the fighting spirit of the group stood out amidst the challenges.
“I look at the positives from the three games we had,” he said.
“Yes, we lost all the games but when we look at the first game against Demerara, whose team is made up of players who have all played for Guyana before, we made 112 and managed to get seven wickets.
“That goes to show we have a good bowling line-up because we also had Essequibo on the ropes scraping to make 152 and they got it in 48 plus overs, so I must commend the young players on the achievement,” Hercules said.
The former national under-19 fast bowler was adamant that Wavell Allen, Bruce Vincent and Joshua Alves are decent pacers who showed good control and have the potential to make Guyana proud.
However, Hercules feels that in order for the team to win the Regional tournament, the batsmen need to continue to hone their skills and work on the basics such as strike rotation and building partnerships.
“We need to work on rotation of the strike. The young players have shown the ability to bat 50 overs throughout the Under 15 tournament, but scoring had been the problem for the batters, batting 300 balls and making 150 runs is not good enough, 150 dot balls is just not good especially for the young players to make a habit as this point of their career,” he explained.
In the series, the Select Under-15 scored 112, 152 and 97. Only seasoned campaigner, Rampertab Ramnauth showed signs of comfort at the crease, with an aggregate of 104 runs. Extras and Ramnauth’s contribution, accounted for 51.5 percent of the team’s runs. Nicholas Shiopersaud has the next best aggregate with 28.
Hercules, though, said that he was confident that their participation achieved its purpose of serving as preparation for the regional tournament while boosting the players’ confidence and helping the management to look at other aspects of the game such as commitment, discipline on and off the field, adaptation and etiquette, among others.
