Twenty-year-old off-spinning all-rounder, Richie Looknauth has blossomed into one of the shining lights around the local cricket fraternity and now sets his sights on breaking into the Guyana Jaguars side.
A former national youth player, Looknauth is among those in the Cricket Guy Inc., Academy Programme, which serves as a nursery for the Guyana Jaguars franchise, a team he hopes to play for in the next two years.
“I’m not too bothered by what people say but I am just leaving that in the selectors’ hands and continue to dish out good performances to merit my selection,” Looknauth told Stabroek Sport.
“I’ve set myself over the next two years to put in the hard work and establish myself as one of the best in the country,” he added.
Since joining the structure in 2017, Looknauth has shown vast improvement and has established himself as one of the pillars of both Cornelia Ida and Everest Cricket Club in the West Demerara and Georgetown associations.
“I don’t really feel pressured when I go out to play in the associations but you back yourself to do well. You train hard all week and you come out there looking to implement into your game what you’ve been preparing for,” he declared.
Looknauth says he has benefited a lot from the academy system.
“The academy system helped me a lot, from the moment I started in 2017 to now, I’ve seen a lot of improvement. I’m bowling a lot in the practice sessions and I learn a lot from the senior guys in the camp,” he disclosed.
The right-handed batsman walked away with the best all-rounder of the year award last season for his Georgetown club, scoring 460 runs and taking 21 wickets.
Looknauth was also integral to West Demerara’s Franchise in the Jaguars 50-over league, taking 10 wickets with an economy rate of just three. He also made useful contributions with the bat, including a top score of 41 against Essequibo.
However, it was not smooth sailing for the off-spinner, who was heavily criticized for his bowling action. But nevertheless, he has remedied his action due to the efforts of the academy.
“It’s a very good system the Guyana Cricket Board has put together I must give credit to them because you have a lot of coaches focused on different aspects of your game and work with you to improve. For me, it helped a lot because when I started I had a certain action but they helped me improve and being among the guys there isn’t much time to relax, you are consistently competing among each other,” he stated.
