This year…

…is Warriors’!!

The CPL has expanded to seven teams making the carnival is bigger, the competition is tougher with a new Jamaican franchise ready to upset the old order. But as the season gets under way, there’s one question that’s on your Eyewitness’ mind: can our Guyana Amazon Warriors bring the trophy home again?
The answer – judging from the squad assembled – is an emphatic yes!!!! Our boya have been here before!! They’ve reached six CPL finals and endured the peculiar agony of being consistently good enough to be the bridesmaid but never the bride – till 2023!! Now coming from back-to-back champs of the Clobal cricket league, they have the opportunity to establish something more important than a single triumph: a dynasty!!
And this year’s squad looks capable of doing precisely that. Shimron Hetmyer remains the obvious headline act for Guyanese supporters. When Hetmyer gets going, he doesn’t merely score runs—he changes the emotional temperature of a match! While Romario Shepherd brings explosive batting and useful firepower with the ball, Shai Hope supplies the kinda class and stability that every winning T20 side needs. Then there is Shamar Joseph, whose arrival adds another dimension to the attack.
And the Warriors ain’t done yet!! Glenn Phillips provides serious international-quality firepower; Muhammad Nabi brings experience bordering on unfairness in T20 cricket. Rahmanullah Gurbaz offers another explosive option at the top of the order, while Dwaine Pretorius gives the side the kind of all-round balance that becomes invaluable when matches are decided in the final five overs. This ain’t a team built simply to entertain the Providence crowd – it’s a team built to win!!
And then there’s Providence Stadium – more than a venue for the Warriors and hometown advantage!! There are few things more intimidating in Caribbean cricket than a Providence crowd that has decided the Warriors gonna win!! Opposition batsmen know what’s coming: – spin, pressure, noise and a Guyanese audience that treats every boundary as a national event!!
The Warriors got five home matches this season – beginning against the Jamaica Kingsmen who just lost their opening game by a nose!! That home stretch could prove decisive. In a tournament expanded to seven teams and 39 matches, consistency gonna matter more than spectacular individual performances!! The Warriors have that psychological advantage: they know how to win in Providence!!
And after the disappointment of losing last year’s CPL final to the Knight Riders, there should be no shortage of motivation!! The new boys have changed the equation cause they ain’t dependent on one superstar. Their strength is the combination of international experience, Caribbean familiarity and a substantial Guyanese presence.
That could become the difference between being entertaining and being champions.
Go Warriors!!

…a Hand Up, not a Handout
The Opposition’s prescription for Guyanese prosperity is wonderfully simple: give everybody some cash and hope for the best!! But it’s simplistic – the politics of the ATM—press the button, dispense the money, collect the applause!! But people don’t need no politicians to hand them a cheque every time the cost-of-living squeezes. They need a hand up, not a handout.
Like the govt’s doing – give youths training and job, not just grants; give entrepreneurs access to capital, markets and infrastructure – not a one-off payment that disappears at the supermarket or rumshop!! There’s certainly a place for targeted assistance to people genuinely in need. But turning government into a permanent ATM machine is hardly a viable economic development strategy!!
We gotoil wealth precisely so that we can build an economy in which people earn more, rather than an economy in which politicians compete to decide who gets the next handout!!
The difference is fundamental!! Gwan da side Opposition!!

…gripe
The PNC/APNU remnant Opposition not surprisingly has joined the GSMA criticism of GWI bottling water saying it ain’t the business of Govt to be in Business!!
So, are they gonna denounce Burnham’s nationalizing 80% of businesses – which he promptly destroyed??