Jaguars wing-out for CG Insurance Regional Super50 Cup
The Leon Johnson-led Guyana Jaguars team departed Guyana yesterday for Antigua & Barbuda, where they will contest the upcoming CG Insurance Regional Super50 Cup, slated for play from February 7-27.
Jaguars will play their first match against Barbados Pride on February 8 from 13:30 h.
Jaguars squad, along with the management team, departed the Eugene F. Correia International Airport at Ogle at 11:00hrs. They headed for Barbados before arriving at their final destination, Antigua.
The Regional Super50 tournament was last played in 2019. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 tournament will be played this year, 2021, in a bio-secure environment.
The aim of this bio-secure environment, or bio-bubble, is to prevent the spread of coronavirus, and at the same time minimise the risk of transmission of the virus from one person to another during an ongoing tournament or bilateral series.
Earlier in the week, the Jaguars squad did two tests and it was only Trevon Griffith who returned a positive COVID-19 test. He was replaced by Essequibo’s Kemol Savory.
Additionally, the squad, upon arriving in Antigua, will be tested again, before being placed in a bio-secure bubble. Following four days of quarantine, players will be allowed to train while remaining in their team bubble. With strict quarantine restrictions currently in place, Cricket West Indies (CWI) was forced to reduce the number of teams for this year’s tournament.
The 47th edition of the tournament will revert to only the six regional franchises taking part, which would mean that defending champions West Indies Emerging Players, along with Canada, USA and the Combined Campuses and Colleges, would miss out. This will mean the six leading franchises – Jamaica Scorpions, Trinidad and Tobago Red Force, Guyana Jaguars, Barbados Pride, Leeward Island Hurricanes, and the Windward Island Volcanoes – are the only teams competing this year for the Clive Lloyd Trophy.
The six franchises will play 19 matches in a round-robin format at Coolidge and the Vivian Richards Cricket Stadium, with the top four teams qualifying for the semi-finals. Last year, CWI was unable to host the tournament after being forced to abort the last two rounds of the first-class championship, and then scrap all of its scheduled international home series due to COVID-19.
Guyana Jaguars squad reads: Chandrapaul Hemraj, Kemol Savory, Christopher Barnwell, Leon Johnson (captain), Shimron Hetmyer (Vice-captain), Assad Fudadin, Keon Joseph, Romario Shepherd, Kevin Sinclair, Ramaal Lewis, Nial Smith, Gudakesh Motie, Anthony Bramble, Akshaya Persaud and Tevin Imlach.
Esaun Crandon is the head coach, Shivnarine Chanderpaul is the Manager/Assistant Coach, and Ernesto Campo Gonzalez is the physiotherapist.