Manager Griffith says Guyana Jaguars Super50 ready
Guyana  Jaguars captain Leon Johnson
Guyana Jaguars captain Leon Johnson

… to clash with T&T Red Force today

By Brij Parasnath

MANAGER Rayon Griffith feels confident that Guyana Jaguars will do well and are Super50 ready for their big clash against Trinidad and Tobago Red Force in their CWI Group A day-night encounter at the famous Queen’s Park Oval today from 14:00hrs.

The Jaguars will be without the services of two of their brightest prospects in Shimron Hetmyer and Keemo Paul who are currently away on West Indies team Test duties against the Indian team. But their absence provides the opportunities of other rising stars to prove their worth and advance their cause and chances of selection on future West Indies teams in the limited-overs format.

Griffith revealed that the rain hampered their training on Wednesday but they had two good days of workout at the Queen’s Park Oval and the National Cricket Centre, Balmain, Couva on Monday and Tuesday since their arrival in Trinidad over the weekend.

The successful manager stressed the need for the players to “adapt quickly to the conditions and execute the team’s game plan. I am confident that they will give a good account of themselves.  They were all involved in playing in the Guyana 50-overs franchise competition and that should serve them well here in the Super50 competition.

“Many of the players had good performances and they know that at this level they will have to reproduce and even do better to come out victorious. In the past couple years, the team performed well and got to the semi-final and final but just did not get that extra to win the competition.

“Hopefully, this year, we will get it all together and reach the final. There are other strong teams in the competition but we are aiming to win the title this year.”

“We will be playing with the aim to win against every team regardless of how strong they are or how many top players they have within their team.”

Commenting on their readiness, Griffith said: “Our players play cricket year round now. And they are always involved in fitness training. So they should be fit and ready to play tough hard cricket and push themselves more than before. We will play fearless cricket but not reckless and will take one step at a time.”

Guyana set a regional first-class record by winning the CWI Professional Cricket League 4Day competition for the past four consecutive seasons. They have always won at the youth level competitions but the Super50 title has eluded them since 2005.

Former West Indies player Leon Johnson will once again captain the team that was eliminated by eventual champions Windwards Volcanoes at the semi-final stage in the last competition at the Coolidge Cicket ground, Antigua and Barbuda.

Among the other members of the team are West Indies A team player Chandrapaul Hemraj, West Indies B team T20 captain Anthony Bramble and former Test players Raymon Reifer and Veerasammy Permaul. There are exciting all-rounders Christopher Barnwell, Sherfane Rutherford and Romario Shepherd plus former West Indies youth players Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Gudakesh Motie and Ramaal Lewis.

Griffith did not reveal the starting line-up and stated that they will make the decision today when they complete warm-up activities. He intimated that they would wish to analyse all the players in their final training session yesterday plus their warm-up activities to make sure everyone is fully fit to compete intensely, in what would be the toughest Group A encounter.

Attacking opener Trevon Griffith returns to the Guyana Jaguars team and has been in good form with a century in the local Franchise 50-Overs tourney. He will most likely get the nod to partner Hemraj at the top of the order while skipper Johnson, who got a hundred plus three fifties, Reifer and Barnwell, who seemed to have regained some encouraging form with both bat and bat, will strengthen the middle-order.

However, they will have to produce their best overall performance to topple the star-studded T&T Red Force, which made light work of reigning champs Windwards Volcanoes, whom they crushed by 75 runs in their opening round battle on Wednesday at the same Port of Spain venue.

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