Ken Doherty coined the idea that “The five S’s of sports training are: stamina, speed, strength, skill, and spirit; but the greatest of these is spirit” and one sportsman who can undoubtedly thick all of those boxes is Guyana Jaguars all-rounder Raymon Anton Reifer.
Reifer’s gutsy batting has saved the Jaguars on a numerous occasions
The Barbadian-born was drafted by the franchise in 2014 when Cricket West Indies (CWI) created a Professional Cricket League (PCL) for their regional four-day and 50- over competitions.
Since joining the Guyana Jaguars at the introduction of franchise cricket, the Jaguars franchise has won three consecutive titles under the astute leadership of Leon Johnson. Was it just coincidence? Or did the man from St. Lucy held his own with bat and ball?
The answers lie in the stats. Each year his performances have increased tremendously. In the 2014/2015 season he scored 227 runs from seven matches and took eight wickets; in the 2015/2016 season the left handed player scored 292 runs and took 22 wickets from 10 matches and his 2016/2017 was the best where he accumulated 445 runs at average of 37.08 and took 36 wickets with a best of 6-74 in one innings during the course of his 10 matches.
His tally with the bat was the third highest for the Jaguars this season only behind Shivnarine Chanderpaul (662) and Shimron Hetmyer (496). With the “cherry” in hand, his penetrating left-arm medium-pace made him the team’s second leading wicket taker behind left-arm spinner Veerasammy Permaul (41 wickets); he was also the only seam bowler in the top eight for the league’s overall stats.
In a recent interview with Guyana Times Sport the player revealed that “ It is good to contribute to a wining cause with my performances, when I play I try to perform so as to get the team in a winning position but I have moved from stride to side since I came to Guyana.”
He added, “In everything I do, I try to be consistent, I try to sick to the basics and enjoy my cricket a lot more and also a lot more gym work which helps my consistency.”
The 25 year old has made his First-Class debut in 2011 playing for the Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) and despite his exploits he is yet to wear national colours for his native Barbados.
However, the Barbados Pride has faced the sword of Reifer twice in the last two seasons when he singlehandedly carried the Jaguars to safety from the jaws of defeat.
This year at the Kensington Oval, the left-hander helped his team pull off a miraculous draw, making a gutsy 35 from 175 balls (223 minutes) in the second innings to take time out of the game after they were asked to follow-on 230 runs behind.
In the Pride’s chase of 93 late on day four he wreaked havoc with 4 for 49 from six overs to keep his team’s championships honours intact after the match ended in a draw.
Those performances resulted in him being selected to the West Indies President’s XI for tour matches against England and Pakistan where he held his own.
Arguably now headlights of the regional selectors, the player is not thinking too far ahead, added the focus must remain with produces the consistent performances.
“To be honest my job is to perform to the best of my ability and everything will take care of itself and not to get carried away thinking about playing for West Indies; obviously the goal is to play for West Indies when it comes, it comes,” he stated.
In reflecting on the Jaguars’ success he explained, “We have been playing good cricket over the three years and even though we have been in tough positions we have managed to come out with a victory or draw in majority of the games and it is us just creating winning habits for the dressing room atmosphere.”
With the season now concluded and the Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) on the horizon where he will be playing for the Barbados Tridents, the player is happy for the rest but was adamant that he soon will be returning to intense training.
