Guyana is poised for some exciting times in its cricket. Riding high on the heels of our phenomenal successes at Regional cricket at all levels in the past few years, the GCB plans to add some more structure, resources, development and accountability to our cricket. GCB is currently in its final stages for launching of the 3-day format of the Jaguars Franchise League in Guyana.
Historically, we would have all been familiar with the 3 teams Inter county tournaments at all levels. This system only exposed about 40 players and was largely proven to be not the very best of systems since many players in the stronger counties fell by the wayside. Our administrators then experimented with a 4th team (President XI) structure, which was also proven to be moderately successful but that too did not solve our problem with the standard and competitiveness of our first class cricket and the exposure of just about 50 players. The GCB is now confident that our structure has now evolved naturally into this new 8 teams franchise system. This system has been carefully designed to reinvigorate all aspects of, firstly, our senior cricket in Guyana and then our youth and female cricket.
The structure of the new Jaguars Franchise league would see 8 teams drawn from all parts of the country competing against each other in all 3 formats of the game, namely:
- Upper Corentyne (Nigg to Skeldon)
- Lower Corentyne (Albion to New Amsterdam)
- West Berbice
- East Coast Demerara
- Georgetown
- East Bank/Upper Demerara
- West Demerara
- Essequibo
Presently, there are 33 cricketers under contract with WICB and CGI and we have allocated these players between these 8 teams in as fair and transparent a manner so that these teams could have be as equitable and competitive as possible. The remainder of the teams would be made up from other players drawn largely from those 8 geographic areas. This new franchise system would have more than 100 quality players vying for places in the national teams in the various formats. Each team would have its own appointed coach and manager.
We are in an advanced stage of planning and rolling out of this exciting phase of our cricket development program. Several franchise holders are at various stages of negotiations with GCB and this is absolutely the last opportunity for any entity to come on board and take ownership in the team of their choice preferably in the geographical area of their business enterprise. This franchise system is aimed at allowing interested parties to invest in the development of the team of their choice and have a greater stake in the actual composition, planning and development of their respective teams. This is a glorious opportunity for everyone to take ownership of their teams and its officials. We strongly feel that this new structure will bring more spectator interest to the game of cricket in Guyana.
The local leagues will be streamlined to feed into the WICB regional franchise system(PCL & Super 50) for all formats including the CPL T20 and is the perfect opportunity for more of our local players to get more involved in the game locally to showcase their talent at a higher competitive level.
The first tournament will be the 3 day format league which will commence on August 26th 2016 and will be known as the Jaguars 3 day League. This tournament will replace the old Senior Inter County tournament and will now feature over 100 of our local first class cricketers. This tournament will be followed by the WICB PCL league which runs from November to March 2017 with a few breaks in between.
The local 50 overs league will run during the breaks of the PCL in the months of January and February with the WICB Super 50 tournament slated for March 2017 and will be called the Jaguars Super 50 League. The most exciting T20 league will commence in the latter part of March 2017/early April 2017. This format will be called the Jaguars Premier League.
Each franchise is expected to have their own base ground facility for practice, training and games along with their own set of officials. There will be contracts to be signed between the franchise owners and GCB clearly outlining each party’s duties and responsibilities with the local Boards lending support and technical personnel in the general administrative plans of the franchise.
The contracted players and the management officials have been allocated as follow:
- Upper Corentyne: Devendra Bishoo, Anthony Bramble, Assad Fudadin, Clinton Pestano, Coach – Winston Smith, Manager/Assistant Coach – Delbert Hicks
- Lower Corentyne: Veerasammy Permaul, Surujnarine Kandasammy, Raun Johnson, Coach – Julian Moore, Manager/Assistant Coach – Andre Percival
- West Berbice: Keon Joseph, Gudakesh Motie, Shimron Hetmyer, Coach – Adrian Amsterdam, Manager/ Assistant Coach – David Black
- East Coast Demerara: Rajendra Chandrika, Paul Wintz, Steven Sankar, Chanderpaul Hemraj, Coach – Esuan Crandon, Manager/ Assistant Coach – Jitlal Jowharilall
- Georgetown: Leon Joseph, Christopher Barnwell, Robin Bacchus, Dexter Solomon, Coach – Colin Stuart, Manager/ Assistant Coach – Garvin Nedd
- East Bank/Upper Demerara: Vishaul Singh, Trevon Griffith, Steven Jacobs, Sherfane Rutherford, Tevin Imlach, Coach – Clive Grimmond, Manager/Assistant Coach – Rohan Sarjoo
- West Demerara: Raymon Reifer, Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Akshaya Persaud, Romario Shepherd, Kemol Savory, Coach – Rayon Griffith, Manager/Assistant Coach – Dhanpaul
- Essequibo: Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ronsford Beaton, Keemo Paul, Kevon Boodie, Anthony Adams, Coach – Michael Franco, Manager/ Assistant Coach – Forbes Daniels