22
GUYANA CHRONICLE Tuesday March 18, 2014
Johnson, Hemraj return to Guyana team at expense of Singh, Chattergoon By Calvin Roberts SEWNARINE Chattergoon and Vishal Singh are two of the three batsmen to have recorded half-centuries for Guyana so far, in this year’s West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Regional Four-Day tournament, with Assad Fudadin being the other. However, the senior selection committee of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) which is being headed by Rayon Griffith and includes Adrian Amsterdam and Nazimul Drepaul, did not find favour with Singh and Chattergoon for Guyana’s next game against Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) that is set to start Friday. The left-handed duo, who have a combined total of 197 runs from six innings, have been replaced by fellow left-handed pair of Leon
Leon Johnson Johnson who was appointed captain of the team but suffered a knee injury prior to its departure for Jamaica two weeks ago, and Chandrapaul Hemraj. Both Chattergoon and Singh have struggled for consistency in the three matches they have played, with Chattergoon, a former Test opener accumulating 87 runs from six innings with a highest score of 50 in the second
round against Barbados at the Guyana National Stadium. However, he has been giving his wicket away with some loose shots, with the most noticeable being in the first innings against the Windward Islands in the last round, when he flashed at one outside the off stump from Kenroy Peters and offered Tyrone Theophile a catch at second slip. One would have expected Chattergoon, who played four Test matches for the West Indies and accumulated 127 runs at an average of 18.14, to guide the younger Tagenarine Chanderpaul during their opening partnership for Guyana, but that was not to be, as he was the first one to be dismissed five out of six times in this tournament. The diminutive Singh, who started with an attractive 73 in the second innings against Jamaica - a game
Guyana lost by seven wickets - has been ordinary since, with scores of 5, 1, 14 and 0, but he still managed to aggregate 111runs, which is second to Fudadin’s 170. Despite this, he will have to watch Guyana’s next game which is a day/night affair at the Three W’s Oval in Cave Hill, St Michael, from the WICB’s website from March 21 to 24, if he decides to stay at home and not go to Trinidad and Tobago to further increase his averages there. All-rounder Christopher Barnwell led the side in the first two rounds against Jamaica and Barbados, while veteran batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul, playing his first game of the tournament, took over the leadership reins for the last match against the Windward Islands, and has been retained in the 13man squad. So too is Chanderpaul’s
son, 17-year-old Tagenarine Chanderpaul, who has to date scored 95 runs from his four innings, with a top score of 41 against Barbados, along with the struggling Narsingh Deonarine, who has 76 runs from his six innings, with his individual scores reading 0, 38, 0, 0, 0, 0 and 38. Wicketkeeper/batsman Anthony Bramble and his Albion Cricket Club teammates in spin twins Veerasammy Permaul and Devendra Bishoo are also part of the travelling party who leave for Barbados sometime today. While Amir Khan, who has played one game against Jamaica following injuries to both Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan, has been named in the 13-man squad, there was no place for West Indies ‘A’ team fast bowler Ronsford Beaton. The lanky Essequibian
picked up a side strain during the Jamaica contest and has been relegated to the sidelines ever since, undergoing therapy while Guyana took on Barbados in the first-ever day/night first class contest at the Guyana National Stadium and Windward Islands. In his absence, Young Achievers Sports Club’s Raun Johnson was handed his debut for the game against Barbados and what an impressive one he had, taking 3 for 38 and 1 for 18 in the two innings. He will be expected to share the new ball on the fast Barbados track with Keon Joseph, who has to date taken 3 wickets for 145, with his best figures being 1 for 27 against Jamaica, receiving ample support from Barnwell and Fudadin. The full 13-man squad reads: Leon Johnson (captain), Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Christopher Barnwell, Anthony Bramble, Devendra Bishoo, Assad Fudadin, Narsingh Deonarine, Chandrapaul Hemraj, Veerasammy Permaul, Raun Johnson, Keon Joseph and Amir Khan.
Dutch player accuses team of cheating in World T20 (REUTERS) - Netherlands cricketer Tim Gruijters has accused team management of cheating by forcing him out on medical grounds so they could bring in Tom Cooper as a last-minute replacement for the World Twenty20 in Bangladesh. “It’s clear that the Dutch coaching staff decided to misuse the rules, hoodwink the ICC, and get Tom Cooper in for me. It’s a disgrace, it’s a cheat, and I would like to state that I do not want to be part of it,” he said in a Youtube video. The Netherlands cricket board (KNCB) said it had launched an investigation. The International Cricket Council (ICC) allowed Gruijters to be replaced in the Netherlands squad by Australian-born Cooper earlier this week due to a lower-back injury. Cooper, whose mother is from the Netherlands, became available for the World T20
on the Sheffield Shield final,” Gruijters said in the video. “Tom Cooper is probably the best batsman eligible to play for the Netherlands. “Fact two, on the same day, some team mates and I had talked about Tom’s availability. We all agreed that no one was injured, so it would be impossible for Tom Cooper to play. “Fact three, the next morning, the 14th of March, the coaching staff called me to their room. They told me that I would Tom Cooper when his team South Australia failed to qualify for the Sheffield Shield final after the last stage of round-robin games ended on Friday. “Fact number one, on Thursday the 13th of March, Tom Cooper became unexpectedly available for the Dutch team after narrowly missing out
CRICKET QUIZ CORNER
(Tuesday March 18, 2014) Compliments of THE TROPHY STALL-Bourda Market & The City Mall (Tel: 225-9230)& CUMMINGS ELECTRICAL CO. LTD-83 Garnette Street, Campbellville (Tel: 225-6158; 223-6055) Answers to yesterday’s quiz: Sir Frank Worrell-261 (WI vs ENG, Nottingham, 1950) Chris Gayle and Paul Collingwood (WI vs ENG, The Oval, 2007) Today’s Quiz: How many wickets West Indian Alf Valentine took in his debut Test series? What is the highest score made by a WI player on his Int’l T20 debut? Answers in tomorrow’s issue
have been in the first eleven had Tom Cooper not been available. “We need someone to be injured they said, we need you to have a scan so that we can get the ICC’s approval.” The 22-year-old, who has played five one-day internationals and eight T20s for Netherlands, said he was bullied into having a scan on a long-standing back injury. “The scan showed I have a bad back. No surprise there. I have had a bad back for years, just like others have had bad
shoulders and bad knees,” he added. “Like all sportsmen, I have learned to deal with the limitations and the pain. In fact, my back is better than it has been in a while. I think I am in the best form possible for this tournament.” The KNCB said Gruijters’ version of events differed from that of the team management’s. “The Board ... regrets the controversy which has arisen following the departure of Tim Gruijters from the Dutch
squad at the World Twenty20 tournament in Bangladesh.” it said in a statement on its website. “The account of Tim Gruijters himself regarding the course of events differs from the account of the team management in Bangladesh. “The KNCB Board has as a result of the current controversy initiated an investigation and shall take evidence from all the relevant parties in order to gain understanding of the course of events.”
MILO/PETRA U-20 SCHOOLS C’SHIP
Nedd, Gritten net five as Carmel drub David Rose
ON DECEMBER 25 last at the Number 5 ground in West Berbice, Ash Educational Trust inflicted a 13-0 whipping on President’s College when the two sides met in the Kashif and Shanghai/Chico Elite Next Generation Football tournament. Unofficially, that scoreline could have gone down in the history books as the largest margin of victory by a school team here in Guyana, until last Sunday when Carmel Secondary humiliated David Rose Secondary with a 16-0 thrashing at the Ministry of Education ground. The two sides were meeting on the final day of preliminary round action in this year’s Milo-sponsored, Petra Organisation-organised Under-20 Schools Football Championships. The key players on target
… Tutorial, St Winefride’s abandon contest
for the victors were Marlon Nedd and Moses Gritten, who each found the back of the net five times, with Nedd doing so in the 2nd, 5th, 22nd, 46th and 48th minutes of play while Gritten emulated him with his goals coming in the13th, 15th, 20th, 29th and 40th minutes of play. Tevin Curry (23rd and 54th) and Jovian Glen (26th and 34th) also placed their names on the scorers’ sheet more than once and following solitary strikes from Nicholas Kirton (26th) and Shivanah Persaud in the 44th minute, David Rose must have wished they had not turned up for the contest. Shawn Grovesnor got a brace in the 22nd and 32nd min-
utes of play for Kingston Secondary, which was complemented by Vincent Thomas’ goal in the 40th minute that guided them to a 3-1 victory over Richard Ishmael, for whom Ike Padmore found the back of the net in the 25th minute. Michael DaSilva and Jaydev Mona were the men finding the back of the net for Queen’s College who blanked Chase Academy 2-0, with the losers feeling double pain when they lost the services of Keon Douglas who was expelled from the game in the 60th minute. However, while the fans and students of other schools were enjoying the action on the field of play during the three matches, the contest between St Winefride’s and Tutorial High
was abandoned following an infringement on the field, with the former leading 2-1. Andrew Holder had gotten a double for St Winefride’s in the 7th and 47th minutes of play, even as Edward Pereira had nullified his first goal with his 32nd minute strike for Tutorial, but the fracas that ensued shortly after forced the organisers to call a halt to proceedings. It is unclear what penalty was handed down to the defaulters, but knowing the directors of Petra Organisation very well, they are not persons who encourage indiscipline or insularity, hence some punishment will be handed down to both institutions. (Calvin Roberts)