The Professional Cricket League: Analysing Guyana Jaguars’ contracted men

By Brandon Corlette

Guyana Jaguars recently named 15 contracted men for the 2021-2022 Cricket West Indies (CWI) Professional Cricket League (PCL). The Jaguars have protected 13 prior to the draft, including newcomer Kevlon Anderson, while the ever-reliable Raymon Reifer has returned to the Barbados Pride.
At the draft, Jaguars opted for the experienced duo of Anthony Bramble and Keon Joseph.
Last year’s newcomers in Tevin Imlach and Akshaya Persaud, who had ‘C’ contracts, have not made this new list of 15, which includes Keemo Paul, Shimron Hetmyer and Romario Shepherd, the ‘A’ contracted men. In contrast with last year, a total of 11 players are on this current list. Ramaal Lewis, who was the other overseas player with a ‘C’ contract, has also not been retained.
Guyana Jaguars’ contracted men are: Kelvon Anderson, Christopher Barnwell, Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Chandrapaul Hemraj, Shimron Hetmyer, Leon Johnson, Gudakesh Motie, Keemo Paul, Veerasammy Permaul, Romario Shepherd, Vishaul Singh, Kevin Sinclair, Nial Smith, Anthony Bramble* and Keon Joseph*
According to ESPNCricinfo in an article published last season, the regional players are contracted under two categories, one of which comprises a set of 90 players who are on monthly retainers with the six franchises. These contracted players are split across four categories: A, B, C and Development. Players in Category A get a monthly remuneration of US$2,666, those in Category B get US$2,000, those in Category C get US$1500 and those in Development get US$1,000.
The second contracted category is the play-for-pay, wherein players are paid on a per-match basis. All regional players across both categories are paid US$1600 per match, which is separate from all the allowances they get, including per diem. These players would receive regional retainer contracts from July 1.

Inaugural Regional contract
The time has finally come for 21-year-old Berbician Kevlon Anderson. This solid right-handed batsman, who prefers batting at number three or four, dominated local cricket in Guyana. He had also shown good promise when he played with the Guyana Jaguars’ players, batting at the top of the order.
In an invited comment with this daily publication, Anderson said it was a good feeling for him to get his inaugural Regional Retainer contract.
“It’s a good feeling, you know, knowing where I came from to where I am at the moment. Still, I am not where I want to be, but thank God for the opportunity. I’ll just continue to work on my game and stay dedicated, disciplined, and determined as always.”

The batting group
The familiar batting group includes Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Chandrapaul Hemraj, Leon Johnson, Christopher Barnwell and Vishaul Singh. Once available, Hetmyer will slot in. Based on statistics from the last Regional 4-Day tournament (2019-2020), which saw Barbados Pride dethroning the Jaguars, captain Johnson was the leading batsman with 472 runs in that season.
Barnwell, who has performed consistently at the Regional level, was the only other batsman to score more than 400 runs; he accumulated 435 runs.
Meanwhile, in the 2021 Regional Super50 Cup, Hetmyer was the leading batsman with 300 runs, while Hemraj scored 233 runs. Both Barnwell and Johnson scored centuries along with Hetmyer. Imlach, who is regarded as one of the fittest cricketers, also showed great promise in the four matches he played.
While many were calling for Imlach to be retained, he has been overlooked as Jaguars opted for the experience of Bramble, whose performances were patchy in recent seasons compared to his recent consistent seasons.

The bowlers
Left-arm spinner Gudakesh Motie has been on the rise. Motie, who was a ‘C’ contract player, will certainly have a higher grade after being the leading wicket-taker in the 2021 Super50 Cup. He finished with 17 wickets.
The seamer Nial Smith has also shown great promise since his first-class debut, and has also moved on to involvement in West Indies camps.
Keon Joseph, who played an integral role in the past for the Jaguars, has made a return to Super50 cricket, and he rocked the Windwards team with figures of 4-24.
Young Kevin Sinclair, who went on to make his T20 debut for the West Indies, has also shown great promise at the Regional level.
The Jaguars’ last season’s only ‘A’ contract player, Veerasammy Permaul, will also aim to continue his domination at the Regional level. The presence of Romario Shepherd and Keemo Paul completes the strong bowling line-up of contracted players.

The outsiders
The Essequibo players continue to find it hard to make the list of contracted players. Anthony Adams, who has performed consistently in local cricket, continues to sit in the back seat and watch his counterparts Motie and Permaul perform.
Ashmead Nedd, who was recently a contracted player for the Leeward Islands Hurricanes, is also not on the list of the Jaguars’ contracted players.
Promising wicket-keeper Kemol Savory and former West Indies youth player Bhaskar Yadram who was contracted with the Windward Islands Volcanoes have also not been contracted.
Sherfane Rutherford, who did not feature in a List A or first-class match since 2019, is also not among those contracted.
In addition to Imlach and Persaud, Trevon Griffith, Assad Fudadin, the recovering Clinton Pestano, Devendra Bishoo and Ricardo Adams are the outsiders.