By Romario Shepherd
The Guyana Harpy Eagles squad departed yesterday for Trinidad and Tobago where they will play the final three rounds of the Cricket West Indies (CWI) regional four-day championships.
The Eagles have retained most of the squad from the first two rounds with two changes.
Batsman, Shimron Hetmyer, and fast bowler Keon Joseph are out and pacer, Ronsford Beaton returns while seamer, Demetri Cameron earns a maiden call up.
The Harpy Eagles planned two practice matches, a three-day fixture that only allowed one day’s of play due to rain and a four-day match that saw only three days, again, due to rain.
Head Coach, Esuan Crandon said he did not think that the unit has ticked all the boxes that they wanted to although they ticked quite a few and deemed it a work in progress.
“When we get to Trinidad we have a fitness assessment and then we have two days to prepare before the game so the focus will be a lot on getting the guys acclimatized as quickly as possible and be willing to train really well in the nets to focus on preparing themselves in the best possible way to play the game,” Crandon told this publication.
He added, “We want to see them simulate that sort of things in the practice sessions and try to cover all grounds that we would want to execute in the game. “Basically, we want to take it one game at a time. We know Barbados will come up with a strong team but I believe we don’t play names, its ball against bat and the team that plays better cricket on the day or throughout the four days will win so we are looking to beat that team but we have to start pretty well in our preparation.”
Crandon indicated that while only one batsman scored a century and one partnership reached the triple digits mark, he is banking that more can be reflected over the next three rounds.
Harpy Eagles will first be taking on defending champions, Barbados Pride, in the third round from Wednesday. The former champions will then battle Jamaica Scorpions the following week from May 28 before closing off the tournament against hosts, Trinidad and Tobago Red Force from June 1.
Barbados Pride are sitting comfortably at the top of the table with 42 points and trailed by Red Force (38.6 points), Leeward Islands Hurricanes (24.6 points), Harpy Eagles (21.4 points), Windward Islands Volcanoes (10.8 points) and Scorpions (8.8 points).
Guyana Harpy Eagles: Leon Johnson (Captain), Keemo Paul, Chandrapaul Hemraj, Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Tevin Imlach, Vishaul Singh, Akshaya Persaud, Veerasammy Permaul, Anthony Bramble, Gudakesh Motie, Nial Smith, Demetri Cameron, Antony Adams, Kevin Sinclair, Ronsford Beaton
