Nedd excited but focused to play First-Class cricket

By Brandon Corlette

Former West Indies

Under-19 and current West Indies Academy left-arm spinner Ashmead

Nedd has received his maiden First-Class call up to the Guyana Harpy Eagles team. Nedd has been selected in the 13-man squad that will face Barbados Pride from February 1 in Antigua.

The youngster has said he is excited but focused to play the longer format. He also disclosed that he gathered certain knowledge from former West Indies and Jamaica spinner Nikita Miller.

"It is a great feeling being able to represent your country at the First-Class level.

Looking at First-Class cricket and Test cricket, it is basically the highest played format. All the greats are looking at it. It is very good Test players, and they all came through a First-Class season at some point in their career. So, this is a good step (for me) moving forward," Nedd explained.

The man from the capital city in Guyana, Nedd, had a solid season with the West Indies Academy in the 2022 Regional Super50. In fact,

Nedd's overall List A career is solid, as he picked up 22 wickets in 17 matches at a

Stage set for opening rounds of the 2023 WI Championship

…To be played in Antigua and Grenada

good average of 22.59 and a top economy rate of 3.75, considering the game being dominated by bat.

The 22-year-old Nedd has also had stints with the Leeward Islands Hurricanes in Super50 cricket. "For the West Indies Academy and List A cricket, we have been together for a month before the Super50 tournament. I was working a bit with Nikita Miller, he showed me a few stuff while I was on camp, and we were mainly focusing on red-ball for myself, because it was something I stress on, I feel like I need red-ball cricket to get some more skills in my game; so that was good," he explained.

For the upcoming West Indies Championships, the Regional Four-Day, Nedd is in the squad of 13 that includes Veerasammy Permaul, a leftarm spinner like himself, and off-spinner Kevin Sinclair, his former West Indies Emerging Player teammate.

Sharing his sentiments on playing alongside Permaul, Nedd said: "Looking at Permaul, I don't have a close relationship with him, but I always look at him, how he carries himself as a professional. He leads by example. He is a very good bowler, so it is just going and play with him for the first season, and it is just for me to gather as much information as I could."

Ashmead will be under the guidance of his father, Coach Garvin Nedd, Assistant Coach for the cur- rent Guyana Harpy Eagles team. He has described his father as someone he can rely on, and someone who keeps him calm.

"He has been there from day one, my personal coach. He is someone that I can rely on. He keeps me calm a lot. He is the only person that can talk to me in certain situations. So, it is good to have a father and a coach on tour, that can lead you in the right direction," the youngster has said.

Nedd has also gained great experience as a net-bowler in the Indian Premier League for Royal Challengers Bangalore. He has also played with the Jamaica Tallawahs in the Caribbean Premier League. The left-arm spinner also played cricket at all junior levels for Demerara and Guyana. He also represented West Indies at the Under-16 and Under-19 levels. Certainly, Nedd is one for the future in Guyana and West Indies cricket.

Cricket

West Indies (CWI) on Thursday announced the match schedule and venues for the first two rounds of the West Indies Championships, the region’s first-class four-day red ball tournament which will be played in Antigua and Grenada.

The tournament will open with Windward Islands Volcanoes hosting Trinidad & Tobago Red Force at the Grenada National Stadium (GNS). This match will start on January 31, and will continue on February 1 to 3.

In Antigua, defending champions the Barbados Pride will start their bid for a third straight title when they face Guyana Harpy Eagles in the feature match at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium (SVRS) on February 1 to 4.

The third contest will see Leeward Islands Hurricanes hosting the Jamaica Scorpions at the Coolidge Cricket Ground (CCG) from February 1 to 4.

The second round will be played from February 8 to 11, when the Barbados Pride will meet the Jamaica Scorpions at CCG; Trinidad & Tobago Red Force travel to face the Leeward Islands Hurricanes at the SVRS, and the Guyana Harpy Eagles take on the Windward Islands Volcanoes at the GNS.

The third round of the West Indies Championships resumes on March 15 with the final round concluding on April 1, when the 2023 Champions will be crowned and presented with the Headley Weekes Trophy.

The final three rounds will all be played in Trinidad, and the venues will be announced at a later date.

Roland Holder, CWI Manager of Cricket Operations, has said: “We are happy to announce the match schedule and venues for the first two rounds of the West Indies Championships, Our flagship regional tournament on the annual calendar. The six teams have been preparing diligently for the upcoming season, and we expect to see keen competition this year as they battle for the Headley Weekes Trophy. From the tournament, the best performers also have the reward of playing for Team Weekes and Team Headley in the new tournament announced by CWI, scheduled for April and May.”

The new Headley Weekes Series will follow the West Indies Championships, and will feature three matches and three teams. Team Headley and Team Weekes will select from the best performers in the 2023 West Indies Championships and players outside the starting West Indies Test XI. The new West Indies Academy will provide the third team in the new Series.

Team Headley and Team Weekes are named in honour of West Indies pioneers and legendary batting greats George Headley and Sir Everton Weekes, whose names are also honoured on the Trophy for the winners of the West Indies Championships. All three matches will be played from 18 April to 6 May at CCG in Antigua.

Every West Indies Championship match will be streamed live on the Windies Cricket YouTube channel. Fans can follow each and every game from their mobile devic- es, computers or connected TVs, including access to live ball-by-ball scoring on the Windiescricket.com live match centre.

2023 WEST INDIES CHAMPIONSHIPS

MATCH SCHEDULE

All matches start at 10am Eastern Caribbean time (9am Jamaica time)

GNS – Grenada National Stadium, Grenada SVRS – Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, Antigua

CCG – Coolidge Cricket Ground, Antigua

ROUND 1:

31 January to 3 February - Grenada

Windward Islands Volcanoes vs Trinidad & Tobago Red Force at GNS

1 to 4 February - Antigua

Barbados Pride vs Guyana Harpy Eagles at SVRS

Leeward Islands Hurricanes vs Jamaica Scorpions at CCG

ROUND 2:

8 to 11 February – Grenada and Antigua

Windward Islands Volcanoes vs Guyana Harpy Eagles at GNS

Leeward Islands Hurricanes vs Trinidad and Tobago Red Force at SVRS

Jamaica Scorpions vs Barbados Pride at CCG

ROUND 3:

15 to 18 March in Trinidad – Venues to be confirmed

Trinidad and Tobago Red Force vs Guyana Harpy Eagles

Jamaica Scorpions vs Windward Islands

Volcanoes

Leeward Islands Hurricanes vs Barbados

Pride

ROUND 4:

22 to 25 March in Trinidad - Venues to be confirmed

Trinidad & Tobago Red Force vs Barbados

Pride

Guyana Harpy Eagles vs Jamaica

Scorpions

Leeward Islands Hurricanes vs Windward Islands Volcanoes

ROUND 5:

29 March to 1 April in TrinidadVenues to be confirmed

Trinidad & Tobago Red Force v Jamaica

Scorpions

Guyana Harpy Eagles v Leeward Islands

Hurricanes Barbados Pride v Windward Islands

Volcanoes

Headley Weekes Tri-Series

All matches to be played at CCG, Antigua

Match 1: 19 to 22 April: Team Headley vs West Indies Academy

Match 2: 26 to 29 April: Team Weekes vs West Indies Academy

Match 3: 3 to 6 May: Team Weekes vs Team Headley

Guyana Breweries Inc (GBI) have pledged to support today’s (January 27) ‘Basketball Bounce back’ activity at the Burnham Basketball Court, in which players from Georgetown, Bartica, Berbice and Linden would be featured.

Bartica would collide with Berbice in a U21 match from 6:00 pm, while Linden and Georgetown would look to reignite their age-old rivalry in the sport in the night's second match, at 8:00 pm. The event is a collective effort by the associations affiliated to the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF), and GBI’s Country Manager Kelvin Singh has said the entity is happy to play its part in helping to sustain the sport of basketball in Guyana.

With the distribution of a wide-range of products, GBI is known for their sponsorship of many sporting events and national athletes.

President of the Linden Amateur Basketball Association (LABA), Rawle Toney, and president of the Georgetown Amateur

Basketball Association (GABA), Jermaine Slater, were on hand at GBI’s Beterverwagting Head Office to receive the trophies.

They have each expressed gratitude for the GBI contribution, and highlighted the company’s usual support for local basketball over the years.

Meanwhile, Linden will be led by senior men’s team national players Yannick Tappin, Terron Welch, Harold Adams, Orlon Glasgow, Shane Webster and Captain Stanton Rose Jr.

Quincy Easton, Dennis Niels, Juel Webster, Vibert Benjamin and Daniel Benjamin are the other members of the team, coached by Kevin Joseph, Junior Rodney and Abdullah ‘Zico’ Hamid.

The Georgetown team will depend on players Dominic Vincent, Nikolai Smith, Jude Corlette, Shamaar Hunt, Travis Belgrave and Elijah David.

Ravens’ Marlon Rodrigues and National Coach Junior Hercules will dictate the bench for the ‘City Boys’.

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