– Jaguars were underprepared and starved of limited overs cricket
After reading an article in the Kaieteur News written by experience Sport Journalist Sean Devers under the headline “Top order, fielding let us down- says Griffith”, I was forced to represent the players who fought hard for a team that was
Chairman of Selectors Rayon Griffith
underprepared as a result of administrative negligence.
During the interview Rayon Griffith, the Chairman of Selectors of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) and Assistant Coach/Manager of the Guyana Jaguars was identifying areas that contributed to the Jaguars’ demise at the group stage of the ongoing Regional Super50 tournament.
According to Griffith during the interview, “The biggest disappointment for me was in the fielding department. If we had caught better, we would have been in the semi-finals. Also the top-order struggled to give us good starts, so I would say those two areas were the main reason we did not qualify.”
However, those two areas were not the main cause for the Jaguars’ underperformance. Therefore, the players should refute the claims made by Griffith.
It must be known that there was not a single limited overs competition held by the GCB in 2016, subsequent to the Jaguars’ exit from the Regional Super50 in February.
Although the Jaguars’ fielding and top-order’s batting struggled throughout the tournament, contributing to some downfalls, the Jaguars were clearly underprepared and starved of limited overs cricket domestically for the entire
Guyana Jaguars Captain Leon Johnson
2016, thus a monotonous performance was imminent.
Griffith is a former Guyana pacer who took 56 wickets in 22 First-Class matches between 1999 and 2007 and also featured in 22 List A matches, including the 2005 Regional final (KFC Cup), which was the last time Guyana won the title. Therefore, he should know as a former player what approach should be taken in order for a team to be successful.
Again, the lack of limited overs cricket in 2016 is not an approach that could garner any success.
Guyana’s exit at the group stage was the first time since 2013 they have not made it to the semi-finals in this format. The Jaguars lost twice to Barbados and Jamaica, but registered two victories each against Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) Marooners and ICC Americas. The Jaguars finished third in the group behind Barbados Pride and Jamaica Scorpions, the two teams that will progress to the semi-finals.
It also means that Guyana’s wait of over a decade (12 years) for a Regional limited overs title, has been extended to the disgust of an entire nation of enthusiastic Guyanese fans, who these players represent every time they compete.
The Chairman of Selectors also praised Jaguars skipper Leon Johnson for his quality. However, not even Johnson, who was indeed outstanding during the tournament, apart from his irresponsible shot to get out in their second match against the Scorpions and a decorated leader with two Professional Cricket League (PCL) titles in his repertoire – could win with an underprepared team.
Instead, the blame for the Jaguars’ insignificant returns be fractionised elsewhere other than administrative negligence, as Chairman of Selectors and a member of the GCB, Griffith and the GCB should acknowledge that they have contributed to this result and better implementations must be made if Guyana is to improve at future tournaments.
