West Indies Championships 2025… : “…don’t want to see happening in our franchise” – Hercules on ball tampering fiasco

…Elated at retention of title

After months of gruelling cricket, at times on the road, the Guyana Harpy Eagles (GHE) have earned their third consecutive West Indies Championships title on Saturday last.
Upon returning to the Land of Many Waters on Sunday, GHE Head Coach Ryan Hercules shared his thoughts on the victory, and spoke of plans in the pipeline for the team’s improvement.

Regarding the title win, Hercules said, “Of course it’s a good feeling being the champions! It goes to show that what we set out to do, at the end of the tournament we achieved. So, once we keep hitting those goals, it’s a great feeling; and coming home to a warm welcome like this even makes it feel a bit better. We’ll continue to push for success!
“There’s always room for improvement, so we’ve already started that plan 2 weeks ago; not on the plane. There are areas we need to discuss in terms from a tactical standpoint, because I strongly suggest we cannot continue doing the same thing year in, year out. We have made changes from last year to this year, and we would’ve seen the difference in our batting points and bowling points. So, we will earmark where we need to improve on, going into next year,” the Coach divulged to media operatives at the Eugene F. Correia Airport on Sunday morning.
While the Champions were happy to return home to a hero’s welcome, the team’s indiscretion in the final Round of the tournament came up for discussion. The ball- tampering fiasco in which two players, Veerasammy Permaul and Kevlon Anderson, were fined 75% and 90% of their match fees for ‘changing the condition’ of the ball, admittedly tainted the final round’s play, and the Coach has declared that that occurrence cannot repeat itself.

He explained, “Obviously, it doesn’t look good for us when you hear something like that breaks out; but I think it was a mistake that was there, and, you know, players would’ve admitted to that. Going forward, that’s something that we don’t want as a background for our franchise, and the players would’ve understand that. So, like I said, it does happen; but it’s something I don’t want to see happening in our franchise.”
The Guyana Harpy Eagles topped the points table of the West Indies Championships with 126.6 points, while Barbados Pride finished second with 121.2 points. Trinidad and Tobago Red Force were third with 111 points, while the Leeward Islands Hurricanes and Jamaica Scorpions completed the top 5 positions with 98.5 and 86.4 points respectively.