It is quite surprising that Warriors nation isn’t calling for the sacking of long-time manager Omar Khan following yet another failed campaign at the Caribbean Premier League (CPL).
Warriors had a quick but painful death against the St Lucia Zouks at the semi-final stage of this year’s event. It was quite disappointing since the Guyanese franchise was expected to get over the hump to set up a showdown with eventual winners Trinbago Knight Riders.
But how much of the blame should fall on the shoulders of the management staff, particularly Khan and overseas coach Yohan Botha? All of the blame, if you ask me.
Khan, who has been involved with the team since the inception of the tournament in 2013, is perhaps the only static manager in the tournament, without a title.
He is largely responsible for engineering the composition of the side during drafts and frankly, if it were any other sport, he would have already been sacked. It is simply not good enough to go title-less after reaching the finals on five different occasions.
One has to really question some of the decisions by Warriors; decisions that would ultimately need to be signed off by Khan. For starters, one cannot conceive the move to gift Chris Green – the Australian with no first-class experience and one who really isn’t knowledgeable of the local players – the captaincy of the side.
It is strange since Shimron Hetmyer is the most successful West Indies under – 19 captain having won the ICC U-19 showpiece event as skipper in 2016.
Even more bizarre, one would think that Hetmyer is one of the few leadership prospects for the future and Khan should know this. Additionally, I have been covering local cricket here extensively over the last five years and I have never seen Khan anywhere near a locally organised tournament.
In that case, is he aware of the match-winning prowess of players such a Raymond Perez who has been a revelation for the Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) in T-20s? That’s just one of the exciting youngsters mentioned. Also, is he aware of the coaching capacity of Garvin `Tibbsy’ Nedd who is perhaps one of the most naturally gifted but underrated coaches here?
Nedd has influenced the development of many including Sachin Singh, Perez, his son Ashmead Nedd, Keemo Paul, Joshua Persaud, Kemol Savory and even Hetmyer who he coached nationally at the junior level.
But he is nowhere around the Warriors set up. Some things are too glaring to ignore.
Moving forward, I would suggest to the owners to consider a few more locally based individuals to comprise the management structure. Roger Harper is an obvious candidate to replace Khan, Garvin Nedd has to be included in the coaching unit while Eusan Crandon, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Shiv Chanderpaul, and Berbician Carl Moore all possess the cricketing acumen to not only make practical purchases during the CPL draft but also to manage Guyana’s young crop.
The owners should make several moves; Khan, Botha, and Green should be given their marching orders.
