Veteran cricket commentator Guyanese Joseph `Reds’ Perreira feels that the Guyana cricket selectors should make a change for today’s second round of the Cricket West Indies’ regional first-class fixture against the Leeward Islands Hurricanes.
According to Perreira, the Guyanese boast a plethora of left handers at the top of the order and he suggests that consideration should be given to having a right hander bat at the important number four position.
“Guyana has a string of left-handers and it takes me back to when Guyana had Fredericks (Roy), Baichan (Leonard), Kallicharran (Alvin), Mohammed (Timur), Lloyd (Clive) and a Police batsman called Mc Rae (Leonard) and you can probably remember a few others and I think it’s maybe too many left handers,” said Perreira in an exclusive interview with Stabroek Sports yesterday.
“I see one possible change maybe Bramble (Anthony) going out and Imlach (Tevin) coming in. He was the form batsman from all reports in the trials and I think with all the left-handers that Guyana’s got, the first three (Chandrapaul) Hemraj, (Tagenarine) Chanderpaul and (Shimron) Hetmyer, you need a right-hander to come at number- four and break it up a bit,” he added.
“That can be further done if Johnson (Leon) adjusts himself if the need be where maybe Keemo Paul can come forward,” he added.
Perreira said despite the fact that the Guyana team won the team did not actually cover itself in glory especially in the batting department.
“The conditions were quite good at the Queen’s Park Oval for the Guyana game against the Windwards. There was no problem with the pitch if the batsmen were prepared to be disciplined and be patient.
There wasn’t all that assistance to the bowlers of both sides,” he said.
According to Perreira the Leewards despite their defeat to Barbados in their season opener would present a tougher challenge.
“Looking at the Leewards I would think that the Leewards are a stronger side than the Windwards and demonstrated this against Barbados. In fact there were in a very good chance of beating Barbados but that has passed. Their batting will be based on the West Indies player Powell (Kieran), Thomas (Devon) who got a hundred, Hamilton (Jahmar) who has been around for some time, the promising Carty (Kacey) and the bowling maybe headed by Louis (Jeremiah) and Archibald (Colin) and one can expect Cornwall (Rahkeem) to do a great deal of bowling. The Guyana side had its good moments but had some awful moments as well when they got themselves in a very strong position and then lost it,” Perreira said.
He highlighted the Guyana second innings where openers Chanderpaul and Hemraj put on 89 runs for the first wicket only for the team to slump to 140-6.
“Let’s look at the second innings start that the Guyanese team got with Hemraj and Chanderpaul and then lost it all, lost nine wickets in a flash before a last wicket effort between Permaul (Veerasammy) and Pestano-Belle (Clinton) spared their team’s blushes,” said Perreira.
He suggested that the Guyana Harpy Eagles will have to play better in just about every department.
“The batting was not all that good in the first innings. They need to have a good foundation to start. One can say that Hetmyer was out to a brilliant catch but you need to keep the ball down and he needs to be a little more patient,” argued Perreira.
“The Leewards are coming out of Barbados with a fair amount of confidence and while Guyana could say that they won and a win is a win, they will know that they didn’t really play that entire well and some people may need to put their hands up,” ended Perreira.
