Kumar Rampat Cricket Academy U-13s Guyana tour …Trinis impressed with standard of outfields here

Dec 23, 2017 Sports, https://www.kaieteurnewsonline...d-of-outfields-here/

By Sean Devers
Rydell Ramsarran, Coach of the Under-13 side from the Kumar Rampat Cricket Academy of Trinidad and Tobago is very satisfied with the just concluded one-week tour to Guyana which climaxed with a farewell Dinner and presentation at the New Thriving Restaurant in Providence East Bank Demerara last Thursday night.

The touring team included Trinidad & Tobago’s U-15 player, 12-year-old Andrew Rambarran, who scored the most runs (111) and captured the most wickets (8) from five matches as the visitors won four of their six matches in Guyana.
Coach Ramsarran said this tour was arranged as part of the developmental programme for the young cricketers and it served the youngsters well in all aspects of development both as cricketers and individuals.
“We wanted to expose them to different conditions at a young age and because Guyana was doing well in recent times in Regional youth tournaments we want to come here. But in addition to that, most visiting teams spend most of their trip in the City but we wanted play games in the country areas so that the youngsters could really have the experience of seeing different places and cultures,” Ramsarran explained.
Krishna Rampat, Technical Director of the Academy which was formed four years ago, also described the tour as a success, adding that while Trinidad has all the modern facilities equipped with lights, practice nets, stands and scoreboards, only the First-Class grounds have good outfields.
“What we saw here are great grounds all over Guyana even though most of them don’t have the things we have. But in the end cricket is played on grounds and if you have the fancy facilities but don’t have a proper ground to play on the youngsters will never become good fielders. We are very impressed with the standard of the grounds here,” Rampat stated.
The team played two t2o games in Georgetown at the famous Bourda where West Indies won their first ever Test match when they beat England by an innings and 89 runs in 1930.
The lads from Carnival County beat East Bank Demerara in the morning game before losing to the Georgetown Cricket Club whose home is Bourda. The game was keenly contested and went into the last over with GCC needing two runs off the last three balls.
Coach Ramsarran said the GCC players were the most organised team they played and it was a memorable experience for the players to play at Bourda although it was disappointing to see the deplorable condition of the stands there.
Tour Manager Shameer Mohammed informed that the team played their first match against Enterprise on the same day they arrived in Guyana and won the t20 game at the Enmore ground.
The visitors also played at Parika against East Bank Essequibo who were the only other team to defeat them in one of two 40-over games they participated in.
The visiting Academy team also played in Port Mourant, an area which produced six Tests players including Rohan Kanhai, Alvin Kallicharran and Mahendra Nagamootoo. The host side lost to the Trinidadians, who were led by a fluent 78 from Khalim Mohammed.
The Trinis also played Zeeburg where they registered their fourth win in six matches to conclude a successful tour on and off the field.
“We have benefited tremendously from this tour since spending a week together. We got to know the people we were travelling with and the tour helped the team to bond and everyone enjoyed their time in Guyana despite this time of the year being the rainy season here,” Rampat disclosed.
At the presentation Ceremony, former T&T off-spinner and National youth selector Suruj Mahabir, who travelled with the team, told the gathering which included the parents of several players, that the youths would have tested their abilities against players from another Country and would have leaned alot especially playing spin which Guyana has a lot of but added that they should not forget their school work since both go hand in hand.
“Always be disciplined and work hard in whatever you do and show respect to others. As a selector we have picked some talented players for Trinidad but their names were scratched out because of their behaviour,” Mahabir said.
Rampat thanked the GCB, the clubs, who were very hospitable and some of the local sponsors, including the Kaieteur News Papers in Guyana, for helping to make the trip a resounding success.