'Let's win the Carib'
-Singh urges national cricket team
By Michael DaSilva
Stabroek News
January 30, 2003
Guyana Cricket Board GCB) president Chetram Singh issued a challenge to Guyana's regional cricket team to win the inaugural Carib Beer four-day tournament which gets underway tomorrow.
Addressing team members and management at the Glow Hotel on Tuesday night, Singh reminded the players that Guyana won the Busta Cup last year and said he is looking forward to the present team winning the Carib Cup.
"Last year we won the Busta, this year lets win the Carib" Singh declared.
Singh also reminded the players that this year Guyana will be without key players (Carl Hooper, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan) that are on duty with the West Indies team in South Africa, to contest the World Cup.
"The onus is on you to do like we have done before. Australia is coming soon and those in the current West Indies team that do not perform well will have to be replaced, there will be places available," Singh stated.
He added: "(Neil McGarrell or Mahendra (Nagamootoo) I feel, should have been on the West Indies team. However there are challenging times. I say we have the best team. You have seven preliminaries, one semi-final and the final, nine games in all and it means you can score 1000 runs and take a lot of wickets."
Singh, who reminded team members that this year's management - Pat Legall (manager) and Albert Smith (coach) - is the same as last year, challenged newcomer Krishna Arjune to see how he can fit in.
He also stated that most team members have a lot of games behind them and this is because they started their cricketing career at a very tender age.
Singh told team members that he is expecting the best from them and cautioned that he would not like to have the manager (Legall) calling him to lodge complaints.
According to Singh, Legall will be sending him a report after each game.
The farewell function was chaired by Essequibo Cricket Board president, Alvin Johnson, who reminded the team that they are not going to represent themselves, but Guyana also.
"Remember that you are going to be competing for places on the West Indies team," Johnson cautioned, adding..."This is not like the 70's when certain West Indies team members places were cemented."
"To (Reon) King and (Colin) Stuart, all is not lost, you can both win back your places. I don't think the West Indies team has four fast bowlers who have cemented their places."
Team manager Legall, who has been with the senior team for the past four years, said the team did three weeks of hard training and they are a fit bunch that are ready to carry out their task.
"The task is not too hard, we will take it one game at a time and will get results," Legall declared.
Legall stated that the bowling department is very strong (King, Stuart, McGarrell, Nagamootoo and Griffith) but the batting is a bit weak.
"I don't know if our batsmen are keeping the runs for the tournament," Legall jokingly stated. Singh wished the team well and reminded that "The whole of Guyana will be rallying around you."
