A fall from grace: Jaguars Super50 timeline since last championship win

By Brandon Corlette

It has certainly been a fall from grace for the Guyana Jaguars in the Super50 format since that famous KFC championship win in 2005 at Bourda. As the next Super50 looms, the Jaguars will be aiming to capture the title and rewrite the history books.

KFC Cup 2005
It took the brilliance of a left-handed Berbician to lead the Jaguars to that 50-over title. It was Sewnarine Chattergoon who made a career-defining 119 as Guyana chased down 247 for victory against Barbados at a packed Bourda. The men from Guyana recorded six wins in that tournament and one tie.

Ramnaresh Sarwan was the leading run-scorer for the side, hitting 462 runs, including three hundreds and two fifties, in six innings. Sarwan’s aggregate remains the highest for a Guyanese batsman since that championship win. The man who landed Guyana the title in 2005 – Chattergoon – scored 325 runs in the season. Mahendra Nagamootoo claimed 12 wickets in the tournament while Neil McGarrell had 11 victims.

KFC Cup 2006
The Guyana team did not defend their title the following season; they suffered four defeats and recorded only two wins. Narasingh Deonarine scored 217 runs and Royston Crandon had 196 runs in a poor follow-up season. Nagamootoo and a young Veerasammy Permaul had eight wickets each, while Esuan Crandon, the current Head Coach of the Jaguars, had six wickets.

KFC Cup 2007-2008
In the four matches played in this season, Guyana recorded two wins and two defeats. Chattergoon made the most runs for the team, scoring 150 runs while Travis Dowlin made 146 runs. Current Captain Leon Johnson played two matches that season. McGarrell and Royston Crandon claimed six wickets each in that ordinary season.

President’s Cup 2009-2010
Entered the President’s Cup. It was the end of the KFC Cup and in the 2009-10 season of the Region’s 50-over competition, many Guyanese thought this was the year when the Guyana team would have their hands on the championship.

Guyana won three matches in the tournament, but they lost the final to arch-rivals Trinidad and Tobago. It was young Darren Bravo and Kieron Pollard this time who kept the Guyanese team without a Super50 title. In that season, Deonarine scored 186 runs while Sarwan made 170 runs. Royston Crandon had nine wickets and a young Devendra Bishoo claimed eight wickets in that heart-breaking tournament.

2010-11 season
It was a year when the title was shared by Leeward Islands and Barbados. The Guyana team played three matches – lost two and had one win. Sarwan made 64 runs while Richard Ramdeen made 60 runs. In only three matches, the leg-spinner Bishoo claimed 10 wickets while Esuan Crandon had five scalps.

2012-13 season
Things went downhill for the Guyanese men in the 2012-13 season, recording four defeats and two wins. Leon Johnson made 204 runs in six matches while Trevon Griffith had 152 runs. Ronsford Beaton claimed nine wickets while Bishoo and Paul Wintz had eight wickets each.

Nagico 2014-15 Super50
It was a similar story for the Guyanese team with three wins and two defeats. This time the Guyanese team lost in the final against Trinidad and Tobago when they were bowled out for 65. That was the year the magician, Sunil Narine did the damage and Jason Mohammed, the current West Indies ODI Captain, scored a century in the final.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul scored 154 runs in that season, including an unbeaten 98 in the semi-final while Raymon Reifer made 115 runs. Permaul had a haul of 11 wickets in that season while Bishoo claimed nine.

2016-17 season
Four defeats and four wins. That was the score for Jaguars in yet another title-less season. Johnson was the man with the bat, scoring 243 runs while Assad Fudadin had 237 runs. Reifer had 16 wickets while Beaton (14) and Permaul (12) also had good returns.

2018 season
A Carlos Brathwaite-led Combined Campus and Colleges (CCC) took a six-wicket win over the Jaguars in the final. It was an almost perfect season for the Jaguars, with the side recording five wins and that final defeat. The valued franchise player Reifer led the batting charts with 323 runs while Christopher Barnwell had 282 runs. Griffith also scored 235 runs in that season.

The then red-hot Clinton Pestano had 15 wickets in the tournament while the Jamaican Ramaal Lewis had 13 wickets. Romario Shepherd and Permaul took 10 wickets each.

2019 season
Suffering four defeats and recording four wins in the 2019 Super50 Cup, Jaguars went two steps back, finishing with a similar number of wins and defeats as in the 2016-17 season. Barnwell was Mr Consistent, scoring 351 runs with the bat while a returning Jonathan Foo made 334 runs. Permaul (11); Reifer and Lewis (10) were among the wickets for the Jaguars.

2021 season?
Owing to the global pandemic, no Super50 tournament was played in 2020. However, the tournament will be played in 2021, and the Guyana Jaguars will be aiming to move one step closer to that title as the team did back in 2005. The 2021 Super50 squad is expected to be named shortly.