Anderson selected for GHE remaining games Says hard work paid off

By Sean Devers

AT age 22, former West Indies U-19, and West Indies Academy’s batter, Kelvon Anderson, is one of the new admissions to the Guyana Harpy Eagles for their third round four-day First-Class game against Trinidad and Tobago from March 15 at the Brain Lara Academy in South Trinidad.

Back in 2020, the talented Anderson was on the verge of making his first- class debut but the COVID-19 Pandemic spoiled that possibility when the 2019/2020 CWI Regional fourday tournament was aborted with two matches remaining as Barbados ended Guyana’s five-year winning streak.

The right-handed batter, who grew up in the town of Rosehall in Corentyne, Berbice, had to wait for over two years to be selected for the Guyana senior team.

In the practice game, Anderson seemed well set for a big score when he was run out by the length of the pitch for 40 but still many felt he would be on the plane to Antigua for Guyana’s first round game against two-time defending champions, Barbados.

But that was not to be as former Chairman of selectors,

Rambindrauth Seeram picked Akshaya Persaud ahead of Anderson despite the fact that Anderson had scored more runs in the practice games than Persaud.

With no cricket available to play here, Anderson, who made 86 not out in the 2020 U-19 World Cup when West Indies beat England, journeyed to Trinidad to play club cricket where he scored a century.

The young man, who has played 11 List ‘A’ games, six of them for the West Indies Academy in last year’s Regional Super50, returned home and scored a well-constructed century for Berbice as Inter-County cricket returned for the first in nine years.

That was enough to convince the new Chairman of selector, former West Indies batter, Ramnaresh Sarwan, to replace Persaud with Anderson on the team which will depart Guyana on Sunday for the twin Island Republic.

“It’s a good feeling knowing that I’m apart of the team, it shows that hard work really pays off. I plan to make the best of this opportunity with a big score, if I am selected in the final eleven,” said the level-headed lad who made his Regional List ‘A’ debut for the Academy team against the Leewards in Antigua last year.

He scored 36 against Barba-

GCB Senior Inter-County

dos and 33 against Jamaica but was dismissed when well set for big scores.

Anderson said this is an area of his game that he has worked on…not converting ‘starts’ into big fifties or hundreds. He feels he has put in the work on fixing that issue.

“Yeah, I trust the works that I’ve been putting in, so it’s just going out there and performing now.

I think my strength is my patience and being able to bat for long periods” disclosed Anderson, who plays in Berbice cricket for the Rosehall Town Youth and Sports Club.

Anderson said he doesn’t mind battling either pace or spin and added that he changes his