“Jaguars’ elimination a huge disappointment” – King

By Ravi Madholall

Guyana Jaguars’ elimination at the conclusion of the preliminary round in the ongoing Regional Super50 was a huge disappointment according to former West Indies quickie Reon King.
The lads from the South America-based franchise finished third with 16 points in Group B behind Barbados Pride with 33 points and Jamaica Scorpions on 28 points and King believes lack of consistency in every department denied the Jaguars combination further progress.
Guyana Jaguars inauspiciously began their quest for regional supremacy with consecutive defeats which set the tone for the early exit. They first went down to hosts Barbados Pride losing by an emphatic 145-run margin and two days later lost to the Jamaica Scorpions by 41 runs.
King, who featured in 19 tests and 50 one-day internationals in the prestigious maroon colours pointed out that the Jaguars failed to compete and could have shown more zeal and determination to lift the championship, which has eluded them for 13 straight years.
“It was a total disappointment from the Guyana Jaguars team; they just did not live up to the expectations and based on what I have seen, they did not play to their full potential,” King related.
The 42-year-old King, who is now a Match-Referee, stated that he and probably a high percentage of Guyanese loyal supporters would have anticipated Guyana Jaguars reach at least the semi-final stage but this came about owing to the lack of consistency in every department of their game.
“We had to play hard and committed cricket from the beginning; they had batsmen with international exposure and that should have given them the confidence to make big scores and ultimately surge to victories,” the right-handed bowler King candidly declared.

One of Guyana most distinguished batsmen, 42 year old Shivnarine Chanderpaul utilized his mountainous experience emerging as one of the leading scorers and scored the Jaguars’ only century.
His captain Leon Johnson accumulated 237 runs from eight matches while Chanderpaul only appeared in 6 games to register 199 runs. Barbadian franchise player Raymon Reifer churned out some fine all-round performances tallying up 189 runs from eight games and grabbed 16 wickets.
“Apart from some outstanding, individual performances there wasn’t much to shout about; when you put it in a nutshell, the entire team did not play the standard of cricket that was expected from them,” a dejected King commented.
Since the inauguration of the regional limited-over tournament in 1976, Guyana have not been able to make a steady impact and winning their last one-day trophy in 2005 under the captaincy of Chanderpaul, and King feels the team might have felt a little bit of pressure to end that drought.
The former Georgetown Cricket Club first-division player, who played 95 first-class games for his native country, reserved special mention for some of the young talents in the team. He is confident and optimistic that Shimron Hetmyer is a bright prospect and would have learnt a lot from this big tournament. He divulged it is vitally important the youngsters given the chance to display their abilities once the selectors are cognizant of their talent.
Meanwhile, the first of the two semi-finals get cracking tomorrow at the Coolidge facility in Antigua and Barbuda where Group A front-runners and defending champions Trinidad and Tobago Red Force collide with Jamaican Scorpions while the following day Barbados Pride will confront the Leeward Islands Hurricanes at the same venue. The final will take place also Coolidge on Saturday.