Following the Cricket West Indies professional players’ draft Monday, Guyana Jaguars rounded out their 15-man unit with the selection of Tevin Imlach and Ramaal Lewis.
Representing the Guyana franchise were Chairman of the Selectors Rayon Griffith and Secretary of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) Anand Sanasie.
Imlach, a 23-year-old wicketkeeper and former West Indies Under-19 player represented the former Four-Day champions in one of his two First-Class matches last season while 23-year-old off-spinning Jamaica all-rounder, Lewis was the second overseas player selected by the franchise.
Notably, Devindra Bishoo and Clinton Pestano lost their contracts with the franchise as well as Guyanese Bhaskar Yadram who was with the Windward Island Volcanoes and Assad Fudadin who represented the Jamaica Scorpions last season.
The other players contracted with the Jaguars are newbies, Nial Smith and Kevin Sinclair and Akshaya Persaud, Leon Johnson, Vishaul Singh, Veerasammy Permaul, Gudakesh Motie, Christopher Barnwell, Keon Joseph, Raymon Reifer, Anthony Bramble, Tagenarine Chanderpaul and Chandrapaul Hemraj. Meanwhile, 18-year-old left-arm spinner, Ashmead Nedd, who represented West Indies at the Under-19 World Cup earlier this year, was the first pick by the Leeward Island Hurricanes in the draft. Nedd also represented the West Indies Emerging Players in the Colonial Medical Insurance Super50 last year.
The CWI Board of Directors has agreed that the requirement to contract at least two players from outside of the Franchise territory will not apply to the 2020/21 season. In keeping with a wide range of short-term recommendations from the CWI Financial Strategy Advisory Committee that were approved by the Board of Directors at the end of May, all contracts will be awarded for a six-month term, at a 50% reduced value.
CWI’s Director of Cricket Jimmy Adams said, “I am pleased to have gotten the regional franchise draft completed. Franchises can now focus on implementing post-lockdown training to gradually build towards their full programs. Obviously we are all hopeful that we will soon be given the all-clear by the respective Governments to resume full franchise operations.”
