– transparency, uncertainties and longevity some worrying factors
By Delvon McEwan
The Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) on Thursday replaced the lonstanding senior intercounty tournament with a league dubbed the Jaguars Franchise League. The announcement was made at the launch of the League at the GCB’S boardroom.
Eight teams – Upper Corentyne (Nigg to Skeldon), Lower Corentyne (Albion to New Amsterdam), West Berbice, East Coast Demerara, Georgetown, East Bank/Upper Demerara, West Demerara and Essequibo – will contest the league for top honours, starting on August 26.
According to Secretary of the GCB, Anand Sanasie, the decision to replace the intercounty competition with the League is because the latter was not good enough for any format of cricket, so the board made some geographical changes.
Prior to the League, the intercounty tournament originated with three teams namely Berbice, Demerara and Essequibo before expanding to four teams with the inclusion of the President’s XI. However, according to Raj Singh, the historical three-team intercounty system only exposed about 40 players and was largely proven to be not the very best of systems, since many players in the stronger counties fell by the wayside. Subsequently, “Our administrators then experimented with a fourth team (President XI) structure, which was also proven to be moderately successful but that too did not solve our problem with the standard and competitiveness of our first class cricket and the exposure of just about 50 players,” detailed Singh.
He further informed that the GCB is now confident that the structure has now evolved naturally into this new eight teams franchise system. This system has been carefully designed to reinvigorate all aspects of, firstly, senior cricket in Guyana and then youth and female cricket.
According to a GCB’s press release, “Presently, there are 33 cricketers under contract with WICB and CGI and we have allocated these players between these eight teams in as fair and transparent a manner so that these teams could have been as equitable and competitive as possible. The remainder of the teams would be made up from other players drawn largely from those eight geographic areas. This new franchise system would have more than 100 quality players vying for places in the national teams in the various formats. Each team would have its own appointed coach and manager.”
It continued “We are in an advanced stage of planning and rolling out of this exciting phase of our cricket development programme. Several franchise holders are at various stages of negotiations with GCB and this is absolutely the last opportunity for any entity to come on board and take ownership in the team of their choice preferably in the geographical area of their business enterprise. This franchise system is aimed at allowing interested parties to invest in the development of the team of their choice and have a greater stake in the actual composition, planning and development of their respective teams. This is a glorious opportunity for everyone to take ownership of their teams and its officials. We strongly feel that this new structure will bring more spectator interest to the game of cricket in Guyana.”
In addition it stated, “The local leagues will be streamlined to feed into the WICB regional franchise system (Professional Cricket League PCL and Super 50) for all formats, including the CPL T20 and is the perfect opportunity for more of our local players to get more involved in the game locally to showcase their talent at a higher competitive level. “
However, subsequent to the launch several questions were raised by the media concerning the criteria used to select the players, the readiness of the GCB to host such event, how visiting teams will be treated and the life span of the tournament among others.
In relation to the answers that were provided, it seems as though transparency in team selection remains questionable, unpreparedness by the Board to host a professional league and uncertainties on the way forward.
Each franchise is expected to have their own base, ground facility for practice, training and games along with their own set of officials. There will be contracts to be signed between the franchise owners and GCB clearly outlining each party’s duties and responsibilities with the local Boards lending support and technical personnel in the general administrative plans of the franchise.
The contracted players and the management officials have been allocated as follow:
Upper Corentyne: Devendra Bishoo, Anthony Bramble, Assad Fudadin, Clinton Pestano, Coach – Winston Smith, Manager/Assistant Coach – Delbert Hicks.
Lower Corentyne: Veerasammy Permaul, Surujnarine Kandasammy, Raun Johnson, Coach – Julian Moore, Manager/Assistant Coach – Andre Percival.
West Berbice: Keon Joseph, Gudakesh Motie, Shimron Hetmyer, Coach – Adrian Amsterdam, Manager/ Assistant Coach – David Black.
East Coast Demerara: Rajendra Chandrika, Paul Wintz, Steven Sankar, Chanderpaul Hemraj, Coach – Esuan Crandon, Manager/ Assistant Coach – Jitlal Jowharilall.
Georgetown: Leon Joseph, Christopher Barnwell, Robin Bacchus, Dexter Solomon, Coach – Colin Stuart, Manager/ Assistant Coach – Garvin Nedd.
East Bank/Upper Demerara: Vishaul Singh, Trevon Griffith, Steven Jacobs, Sherfane Rutherford, Tevin Imlach, Coach – Clive Grimmond, Manager/Assistant Coach – Rohan Sarjoo.
West Demerara: Raymon Reifer, Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Akshaya Persaud, Romario Shepherd, Kemol Savory, Coach – Rayon Griffith, Manager/Assistant Coach – Dhanpaul.
Essequibo: Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ronsford Beaton, Keemo Paul, Kevon Boodie, Anthony Adams, Coach – Michael Franco, Manager/ Assistant Coach – Forbes Daniels.
