2016 cricket review (Part 2)… GBC three-day League good concept with some flaws

Jan 03, 2017 Sports, http://www.kaieteurnewsonline....ept-with-some-flaws/

Senior team not as convincing as last year

 By Sean Devers

Guyana’s senior team dominated last year but slipped a bit since then and suffered their first loss in 18 matches when the Hurricanes won by four wickets as they successfully hunted down a 33-year old record run chase in St Kitts.

The GCB three-day League was a good concept but the standard was diluted with too many teams, indiscipline and Umpires reluctant to enforce rules. Six teams would have been good enough.

But it was not all doom and gloom as West Indies ‘A’ team pacer Keon Joseph and Bajan left-arm speedster Raymon Reifer ended the first half of the Digicel First-Class tournament as the leading pacers with 16 wickets each.

At 42, Shiv Chanderpaul provided the young guns with a batting lesson, scoring 447 runs and was the only Guyana batsman to reach a century, which he did twice. He also had scores of 91 and 81 not out to be the only Guyana batsman to reach 300. The Jaguars finished second with 64.6 points behind Jamaica’s 67.8 points.

All of their first seven batsmen reached fifty but only Chanderpaul converted his into centuries while in addition to Joseph and Reifer, Permaul (27) and Motie (16) were also among the leading bowlers.

In the GCB three-day league, West Demerara’s Romario Shepherd (34), Reifer, the most successful All-rounder (434 runs & 28 wkts) and leading run scorer Tagenarine Chanderpaul (635), helped their team to the runners-up spot and $300,000 behind ‘double’ champions Lower Corentyne who won $500,000.

NAGICO Super50: January

Guyana topped group ‘B’ in St Kitts with 18 points to qualify for the semi-final against T&T.

Fudadin batted from start to finish to score an unbeaten 103 with eight fours and fours sixes, while Jamaican Andrew McCarthy (118) and T&T’s Evin Lewis (102*) were the only other centurions.

In the semis Guyana lost to T&T by 54 runs after Daren Bravo’s 95 spurred T&T to 259 and Guyana replied with 205 despite 51 from Anthony Bramble. The tournament was won by T&T who beat Barbados by 72 runs.

Regional Female Super50: July:  

Host Guyana finished fifth in the rain affected tournament which was won by T&T after the final at Everest was washed out without a ball being bowled. The GCB was criticized by the T&T Coach for not using Providence for the final.

Regional Female t20: July

Guyana ended fourth as T&T captured the ‘double’ when they got past Jamaica in the final at Providence.

GCB three-day Franchise League

After seven rounds, the inaugural League concluded with Lower Corentyne dominating with six wins and a draw.

Lower Corentyne’ Jonathon Foo scored 150 and 127 in the first two rounds, while Seon Hetymer (215) and Surujnarine Kandasammy (212) scored double centuries in the same innings when L/C’tyne rattled up the highest total of 649-9 declared against West Berbice at Port Mourant.

Chanderpaul Hemraj (250), Seon Hetymer (215) and Kandasammy (212) scored double centuries while Foo (2) Baskar Yadram (2 in 1 match) and Assad Fudadin (2) had the most hundreds, while Tagenarine Chanderpaul (635), Kandasammy (607), Foo (580), Hemraj (562), Baskar Yadram (514) led the runs aggregate.

Eon Hooper (44) Gajanand Suknanan (42), Shepherd (34), Kasim Khan (30) and Reifer (28) were the leading wicket-takers with Shepherd (8-49) recording the best bowling figures while Hooper had the most five-wicket hauls (5) which earned him a FC debut against Jamaica.

The top players were inserted into each team, thus strengthening the weaker teams while 104 players, eight Coaches and eight Managers were paid $5,000 per day for the 21 days with $12.6 Million spent on salaries.

Another positive is that games were played in all three Counties which provided fans in the rural communities an opportunity to see the best cricketers compete.

The emergence of 21 year-old Shepherd and 18-year-old Kemo Paul as quality all-rounders and the consistency of 20-year-old Tagenarine Chanderpaul, 23-year-old Hemraj, Foo, Baskar Yadram, Kandasammy, Akshaya Persaud and Sherfane Rutherford were all positives for the future of Guyana’s cricket, while at a time when quality off-spinners are hard to find the success of Hooper and Suknanan is encouraging.

All of the leading wicket takers were spinners (except Shepherd & Reifer) which exposed the inadequacies of the local batsmen to play spin. Shepherd and Reifer took 62 wickets between them.

The high scores were due to a combination of decent batting, inconsistent bowling, faulty catching and questionable field placings.

Better pitches are needed since poor pitches gave bowlers a false sense of accomplishment and cause batsmen to lose confidence. Few batsmen show the temperament to bat ‘long’ on slow pitches which prohibits stroke-play.

Bowlers were allowed to operating with suspect actions, players arguing with each other and Umpires were common occurrences and it’s imperative that due to the age of the players, the GCB organize Clinics dealing with etiquette, leadership skills, dress code and dealing with the Media.

GCA Cricket:

The Carib Beer t20 tournament was the only first division competition played for 2016 when DCC beat GCC in the final in Queenstown. This match saw the return of live NCN Radio coverage at club level but this was short lived and never happened again for the year.

CPL t20: July

The Amazon Warriors played four matches at home and lost the Final to Jamaica by nine wickets with 48 balls to spare after the Warriors fell for 93 in 16.1 overs.

WICB PCL four-day Franchise:

The Jaguars continued from where they left off in the first half of the tournament in 2015 by remaining unbeaten in their final four matches to retain the title, amassing 149 points with eight wins and two draws.

They began 2016 by beating the Red Force by 105 runs in February with Vishaul Singh stroking an accomplished 104 before drawing with Barbados as Shai Hope and Jonathon Carter scored hundreds to deny Guyana victory. Tagenarine Chanderpaul (69), Johnson (50) and Chandrika (49) batted well for the Jaguars.

The Jaguars travelled to St Lucia and defeated the Windwards Volcanoes by six wickets with Skipper Johnson leading from the front with 107.

The Jaguars finished off the 2016 season with a tense draw in fading light in Antigua to capture back-to-back titles.  Johnson became the only Guyana Captain to lift consecutive trophies to give Guyana their ninth Regional four-day Championship. He joined Kanhai (1), Lloyd (2), Roger Harper (2), and Hooper (2) as winning Captains. Johnson was the tournament’s leading run scorer with 803 runs while Singh was second in the runs aggregate.

The 2017 tournament commenced in November 2016 and the Jaguars finished the first half of season in second place after five games.

After extending their unbeaten streak to 18 with a first round 181-run win against Jamaica Tallawahs at Providence with Chandrika (86) and Shiv Chanderpaul (91) carrying the Jaguars to 298; Singh (71), Johnson (69), Hetymer (47), Motie (4wkts) and Permaul who took five in the first innings, helped the Jaguars to an emphatic win.

Chandrika (64), Chanderpaul (81) and Hetymer (53) took Guyana to 293 against the Leewards Hurricanes in St Kitts.

Barnwell (61) and Reifer (46) led the Jaguars to 233-8 in their second innings before they declared leaving the hosts to get 367 in 115 overs. Monchin Hodge (114) and Kieron Powell (54) powered their team to victory to end Guyana’s unbeaten streak.

Two days were lost to rain in St Lucia as pacers Reifer (6-82), Joseph (2-50) and Barnwell (1-25) took nine wickets in the first innings. Bramble’s 58 took Guyana to 219 before rain washed out the contest with the Volcanoes 90-4 in their second innings.

Chanderpaul’s even 100, Hetymer’s 60 and Singh’s 40 spurred the Jaguars to their first 300 (311) total against Barbados Pride in the rain ruined fourth round encounter which ended in a draw at Providence.

Permaul (4-68) and two wickets each from Joseph and Motie restricted the Pride to 288 but Hetymer’s second fifty (67) in the game failed to prevent the host from falling for 137 as no other batsman reached 15. Set 161 to win the visitors were 23-1 when the game ended prematurely.

In the final match for the year, lights were used at Providence in a first-class game for the first time in two years when the Jaguars played the Red Force.

Chanderpaul scored his 73^rd FC ton (143) and second in successive matches, while Johnson supported with 69 as the Jaguars reached 378 in reply to the 162 made by the Red Force.

Permaul (4-31) and Reifer (3-32) bowled well as the Red Force made 235 in their second innings with Permaul taking his 20^th five-wicket haul. Motie and Joseph had two wickets each.

Set 20 to win the Jaguars reached 21-0 with Hetymer hitting two fours and a six in an unbeaten 17.

West Indies Women’s t20 World Cup:

Shemaine Campbell and Tremayne Smartt were the Guyanese on the team which won the event in India by beating Australia in the final.

West Indies Test Team:

West Indies played nine Tests in 2016 (Australia (1-0), India (2-0) and Pakistan (2-1), losing five of them and drawing three. Their only win was against Pakistan in the UAE.

Chandrika, Bishoo and Johnson were Guyanese to play Test cricket this year. Bishoo had a good series against Pakistan taking 18 wickets including 8-49 in the first Test.

Chandrika played against Australia and India before being replaced by Johnson for the Pakistan series and both batsmen struggled for runs. Bishoo played against India and Pakistan.

West Indies ‘A’ team:

Eight Guyanese were selected in the West Indies ‘A’ team which toured Sri Lanka. Singh (vice-capt), Chandrika, Hetymer, Motie and Joseph were selected for the First-Class matches while Assad Fudadin, Permaul and Ronsford Beaton were a part of the limited overs series.

WICB Officials:

Guyana Jaguars Manager and Chairman of the National Selectors former Guyana pacer Rayon Griffith was appointed Assistant Coach for the ‘A’ team, while former Guyana and West Indies batsman Travis Dowlin was a surprise inclusion on the West Indies selection panel.

The 77-year-old Reds Perriera retired from First-Class Radio Commentary after a 50-year career with his last match being Jaguars versus Pride at Providence.

Johnson and West Indies women’s player Shemaine Campbell were adjudged Male and Female Cricketer of the year respectively at the GCB annual Awards Ceremony on December 29.