RED Stripe Bowl champions Guyana arrived home last night minus skipper Shivnarine Chanderpaul who stayed back in Antigua. In this Winston Oudkerk photo, vice-captain (front row) Ramnaresh Sarwan displays the Red Stripe Bowl , while other team members show off their other prizes.in the VIP Lounge of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri.

Tired but still in a state of euphoria, the homesters led by their vice-captain Ramnaresh Sarwan proudly displayed the Red Stripe Bowl after exiting the plane.

Captain of the side, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, decided to head straight to the West Indies training camp which starts today in Antigua, so he was not on the trip. Sarwan, though, came in last night with the side but was due to leave this morning for Antigua.

The West Indies camp will be held for one week before the side leaves for Africa to commence their tour of Zimbabwe.

“ I am heading to the camp with the main intention of passing my fitness test, everything else comes second to this. I honestly was not convinced with my batting performance during the tournament and this is also something I would be working on,” Sarwan related.

When asked about the relationship between himself and Chanderpaul, Sarwan in a jovial manner explained, “ It is as normal; there is no hard feelings between Chandra and me. Playing second fiddle to him is more of a growth process for me. He has a lot of experience and it is more useful for me on a long-term basis.”

With reference to the team’s effort Sarwan felt that Guyana did well.

“We did pretty well, at first we were more worried that our bowling would have failed. This though was the total opposite. Throughout the tournament we listened to each other and worked as a unit.

Also coming in with the players were coach of the side Albert Smith and manager Carl Moore,

Coach Smith with pride explained that the victory was a gift from the cricketers to the Guyanese people. “When we left Guyana a lot of persons thought that we would not play as a unit, but a great bond between the players especially Chanderpaul and Sarwan set the stage for the other players to lend a good supporting role, to claim the victory”.

With admiration Smith expressed his delight for Chanderpaul’s overall captaincy.

“Chanderpaul impressed me with his leadership on and off the field, after the semi-final victory against Jamaica. The captain carried the boys out for champagne. He did this again after copping the Bowl,” the coach explained.

Manager of the team, Carl Moore, said the entire tournament was very satisfactory.

Excluding the two West Indian players Chanderpaul and Sarwan, the other players will commence training for the four-day Inter-county tournament, which is scheduled to commence at the end of the month.