Poor administrators the reason behind Guyana’s showing in Women’s T20 Blaze

By Brandon Corlette

The state of women’s cricket in Guyana continues to be reflected in the senior national female team’s performance.

In the ongoing Cricket West Indies (CWI) Women’s T20 Blaze tournament that is being played in Guyana, the home team’s chances of winning the T20 Blaze title are impossible. The Guyanese suffered defeats against Barbados and Jamaica, and one match was abandoned owing to rain.
Guyana have never won a women’s regional title, and the main reasons for that are the lack of team preparation for long periods and lack of consistent female cricket in Guyana. With the exception of cricket in Berbice, what is the level of female cricket in Guyana? Have a look at the women’s inter-county tourney, Berbice continue to win year after year.

While the Berbice side is stacked with raw talent, with the likes of Shemaine Campbelle, Shabika Gajnabi, Tremayne Smartt, Sheneta Grimmond and young Ashmini Munisar, Demerara have some good players as well. Kaysia Schultz, Cherry-Ann Fraser and Mandy Mangru, who represent Demerara at the inter-county, are all recognised players.
Despite all these big names in female cricket in Guyana, the team’s collective performance remains poor. In the first match, which Guyana lost to Barbados by seven runs, their failure to chase down 87 was evidence of the reactive nature of the cricket in Guyana, and not the pro-active nature.

Imagine having a total of 87 runs from 120 balls to overhaul, and the top order came out with no proper plan. In that chase, Guyana were 54-2 in 14.2 overs. Many cricket pundits were surprised by the Guyana batting line-up; the reactive nature of the team prompted a change of batting line-up in the match against Jamaica.
That did not work for the Guyanese as the Jamaicans rolled over them. The top order collapsed this time, being reduced to 36-5 in 10.4 overs. While the surface at Providence is slow, the shot selection from senior players was questionable. Guyana made only 90-6 in the Jamaica game, but that proved insufficient as Jamaica won by seven wickets.

While the new Guyana Cricket Board opted for a full-time female cricket coach, that will not solve the problem of the poor level of female cricket in Guyana. Until the female cricketers have a structure in place where the potential national players are training together on a long-term basis, more female competitions being played locally, and more players are being rewarded financially, the senior regional women’s championships will continue to elude the Guyanese.
Guyana will now be playing for pride today and Tuesday. Their next opponents are Leeward Islands and Windward Islands respectively, and both of those matches will be played from 19:00h (7pm).

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