PPP PRESS RELEASE: The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) would like to join with the many others in congratulating the young and talented Guyanese cricketer, Leon Johnson, on being selected for the West Indies squad. While he is still to receive a Test-Cap, his presence in the squad is most encouraging and can only help to foster his confidence and dream of representing the Regional Team. Our Party can only hope that very soon he would be given the opportunity to proudly don the maroon cap. As we all eagerly await his first outing as a Test cricketer, our Party hopes that, like him, other local players who are knocking at the West Indies selectors’ door, would soon be imbued with the same sense of excitement of a much deserving call.

Our Party would also like to extend congratulations to the West Indies cricket team on their recent victory over New Zealand in the second Test match of the current series. We hope that this hard fought victory would not be an isolated one but as another step towards inculcating a winning attitude which the people in the Region have been anticipating over the years. While unfortunately such anticipation has become a clichÉ, this victory can provide the inspiration that can be infused for future successes especially given that Cricket World Cup is a few months away. 
As loyal fans bask in this success, the PPP would like to commend the determination of Shivnarine Chanderpaul who continues to provide invaluable and yeoman service to the West Indies team which he has been doing over the last twenty years. Currently, he is ranked by the International Cricket Council (ICC) as the number two batsman in Test cricket and in the past held the number one position more than once. More so, he is highest Test runs scorer for Guyana and number two in Region, just shy of some five hundred and seventy nine runs behind Brian Lara. Like all Guyanese, our Party would be ecstatic and overwhelmingly proud of him breaking Lara’s Test runs record.  It is therefore our Party’s fervent hope that he would be given the deserving opportunity by the West Indies selectors to continue to be the bedrock of the team in the future thereby enhancing his chances of becoming the leading Test runs scorer in the Region. The joy this would bring to him and Guyanese here and overseas, is unimaginable. Our Party is confident that over the next two series, Bangladesh here in the Caribbean in September and in South Africa in December, Shiv, “Tiger”, as we all fondly call him, would bring this record to Guyana. His selection for these series and others remains automatic and unquestionable given the fact that he is fit and his continuous propensity for stellar performances.
As Chanderpaul continues to perform outstandingly, our Party calls on the West Indies selectors to do the right thing and ensure that he is an integral part of the 2015 World Cup team. We believe that the West Indies team can ill-afford his non-selection in this premier competition which the Regional side won on the first two occasions in 1975 and 1975 but has failed in repeated efforts over the last thirty-five years. Chanderpaul’s engrained ability to provide stability in the team’s batting is a crucial element which is desperately needed. The numerous occasions he has demonstrated this in Test cricket and which he continues to do, remain the undeniable criteria and vindication for his selection in the 2015 World Cup team. We call on all to lend their voices in robust representations.

Also, in an effort to foster the development of cricket here in Guyana so that our country can continue to produce talented players, our Party calls for the establishment of a functional and effective local Cricket Academy. We strongly believe that our country, which has produced some of the greatest players in the history of world cricket, must have such an important facility as part of its training and developmental program. We therefore urge those concerned to heed this call and to focus on the development of cricket and cricketers.

Current and future players deserve no less and in this regard, we call on the relevant authorities to ensure that related facilities which were established become functional for the purpose intended since we believe they may be a degree of underutilization. The development of cricket must not be seasonal since this game not only unifies but is engrained in the culture of our country and that of the countries in the Region.

Guyana and West Indies Cricketer Leon Johnson