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guyanatimesgy.com
sunDAY, september 17, 2017
Dreams come true for Nedd, Perez ‒ both players express confidence of making final cut By Akeem Greene
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alented National Youth players Ashmead Nedd and Raymond Perez after a rewarding 2017 Regional Under-19 season gained selection to the West Indies under-19 training squad for the 2018 ICC Youth World Cup in New Zealand. At the under-19 tournament in St Kitts in August, Nedd was deemed the Most Valuable Player for three-day leg while Perez won the same award for the Super50 version. Nedd, a left-arm spinner, bowled 151.3 overs inclusive of 49 maidens and took 26 wickets. He had two five wicket hauls with best bowling of 7 for 20 recorded against the Windward Islands which was deemed the most wickets in a match. Nedd also took ten wickets in the Super50-over leg. Speaking to Guyana Times Sport on Saturday he expressed that it was a tremendous feeling of joy when he heard the news and plans to do his best. “I’ll credit my parents, especially my father Garvin Nedd who paid a keen role throughout my cricketing career and also throughout the regional under 19 tournament who had been my motivation. Since the tournament started he was sending me multiple voice notes in the morning before every match. I must say all the thanks should go to him and the Demerara Cricket Club who had also paid a key
role into my cricketing career from the start,” he further stated. Given that he will be competing for a spot in the final 15-man squad against arguably the best current youth cricketers in the region, Nedd knows he has to bring his A-game. “I will be focused enough within every aspect we carry out in the camp know that that the stepping stone of making the final 15-man squad. In my game the area I should tighten up on is more consistency when bowling,” he posited. Can he handle the pressure that might come? West Indies are the defending champions after a memorable win over India last year in Bangladesh. “I think I can handle the pressure well I know a lot of the players in the squad and they have great ability. It wouldn’t be an easy task for the team but with the ability I know the team can bring success to the Caribbean once again,” the 16 year-old. Given his stint in January 2015 playing for Tony Hartford U-17 Academy team of Trinidad and Tobago in a tour of New Zealand, the spinner feels it will be a big confidence booster should he make the final cut. Likewise, his club mate Raymond Perez is eager to
Local wheelsmen battle the road for crucial points today
niles, seniors and veterans competing. Paul DeNobrega currently leads the Classification with 146 points while Jamaul John is breathing down his neck with 145 points. Cyclists such as Shaquel Agard, Raul Leal and Alanzo Ambrose will be looking to improve their standing on the table. Briton John sits atop the table for the Juveniles while Junior Niles is first for the Veterans.
Paul DeNobrega is on top of the Guyana cycling news points table
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uyana’s top cyclists will hit the road today as the Guyana Cycling Federation holds a road race for classification points. The grueling race will begin from Homestretch Avenue in Georgetown at 8:00h then proceed to Timehri just before the Cheddi Jagan International Airport before heading to the Linden/Soesdyke junction then along the Linden/ Soesdyke highway to Camp Seweyo before turning back to finish at Homestretch avenue. The race will see juve-
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id Darren Sammy snub Cricket West Indies (CWI) president Dave Cameron at the post-match presentation ceremony at Gaddafi Stadium on Friday? Sammy was a member of the World XI that played three T20s in Lahore this week, and on Friday his side lost the final game, and with it the series. Cameron was in Lahore to discuss a potential tour to Pakistan by West Indies in November. After the game, the WorldXI players lined up to receive medals from Cameron, who was part of the awards ceremony. Hashim Amla was
Raymond Perez
stake a claim for the ultimate heights for a youth cricketer. “It was great feeling when I heard that I was selected. Coming out of the regional tournament with the most runs was my main goal and getting picked for the West Indies camp and hopefully getting picked for the world cup is a great feeling,” the compact righthanded batsman stated. Perez scored 348 runs from
Ashmead Nedd
six innings finishing unbeaten on three occasions which meant he averaged a staggering 116 and had a highest score of 77 against the Windward Islands. “I looked to keep it to the basics, look at the new ball and see what the bowlers were doing. I knew a couple of bowlers so I knew what to expect from them. Night before my matches I would think of
how to score my runs and think what fields they would set for me. I looked back to last year and to the fields they set and I know they will come with it again,” he explained. Questioned on what areas he needs to address, he admitted improving his fitness. Though many batsmen from the Caribbean maybe daunted by the challenge of playing on seaming pitches, Perez sees it as an opportunity to gather more runs. “The pitches are quite different. I think they will be a bit quicker which is good for batsmen to get scores,” the 18 year-old contended. Perez too was questioned on the pressure that awaits and stated, “there will be a lot of expectations from us, we are defending champions so a lot of teams will be looking at us and wanting to beat us. I think there is a bunch of good guys
who are talented and hopefully we come out successfully if we back our abilities.” Shaping his career after talents such as Virat Kholi and Lendl Simmons, Perez has set his sights on either being the leading or close to the leading run scorer for Georgetown in the on-going Jaguars Franchise 3-day league so that he can enter the camp with an abundance of confidence. The two-week training camp which runs from December 5 to 20 in Barbados and Antigua will be their final preparation in the Caribbean before travelling to the ICC Youth World Cup to be staged from January 13 to February 3. The full squad reads; Alick Athanaze, Brad Barnes, Joshua Bishop, Cephas Cooper, Kishan Graham, Jarion Hoyte, Kirstan Kallicharran, Mikyle Louis, Aaron Maniram, Kimani Melius, Ashmead Nedd, Darron Nedd, Kian Pemberton, Raymond Perez, Joshua Persaud, Jeavor Royal, Keegan Simmons, Javier Spencer, Emmanuel Stewart, Bhaskar Yadram, Nyeem Young.
GFC and Police set up “Dream Final” in Corona Invitational Cup
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he young talent of GFC will line up against the experience of the Guyana Police Force FC tonight in the final of the inaugural Corona Beer Invitational tournament at the Georgetown Football Club (GFC). The hosts will be led by their most prolific scorer in recent times, Nigerian Benjamin Opara who has managed the incredible feat of scoring in every game he has played thus far. Police will feel they can rely on experience as they come up against a GFC team with pure youth and talent. At a recent press briefing held at GFC, Bourda, the management of both teams expressed optimism of producing a winning result in high-octane action. GFC Manager Fizal Khan had bluntly stated: “We have
first in line, followed by Tamim Iqbal, Paul Collingwood, David Miller and then Sammy. As Tamim received his medal, Sammy turned away before jogging off. That sequence of events could clearly be seen on broadcast footage. Was it a snub? Not according to Sammy, who famously took a very public pop at his board in the immediate aftermath of winning the World T20 in 2016, which ultimately led to his removal from the T20 captaincy just four months later. That was part of a bitter contractual dispute between players and the board that only now seems to be coming to an end.
Police hope they can arrest the youthful exuberance of GFC today
not come this far to come this far. We came this far to keep going.” GFC who just last month celebrated their 115th anniversary as a club will be playing in their first final in al-
most a decade. Shaquille Bowen who will captain GFC and has been with the club since the U-15 level has acknowledged their opponent’s experience but pointed towards his side’s
Darren Sammy
In July, the CWI offered “temporary amnesty” to players who earlier did not fit the selection criteria to make themselves available for ODIs. Consequently Chris Gayle is part of the West Indies limitedovers squad for the England series, which begins with the lone Twenty20 in Durham on Saturday. But Sammy, whose last match for the West Indies was the World Twenty20 final last April, has been ignored by the selectors. Soon after the last game in Lahore, Sammy said to ESPNcricinfo that he hadn’t walked away from Cameron but had instead rushed off back
youth and talent. On the opposing side, the lawmen are cautious but confident of adding another title to their collection. With GFC holding the upper hand as they defeated Police 3-0 during the group stages, Police Coach Dwayne Bobb said that he looked at the defeat as an eye-opener and noted that his side will be very cautious. The first game of the double header brings together Western Tigers and Northern Rangers in the third place play-off from 19:00h before the grand finale at 21:00h. The stakes are high with the winners set to pocket $1 million and the championship trophy, while second to fourth place teams will walk away with $400,000, $200,000 and $100,000 respectively and the corresponding silverware.
to the dressing room for a toilet break. It is, he added, what he also did during the PSL final, where he had led Peshawar Zalmi to the title at the same venue. Two voices from inside the World-XI dressing room, however, say that a snub is precisely what it was. Sammy, they say, does not want to have anything to do with Cameron. Interestingly, Samuel Badree, Sammy’s one-time West Indies team-mate, and a member of the World XI did accept his medal from Cameron, even though he has also in the past expressed strong reservations about Cameron. (ESPN Cricinfo)