Coach of the national Under-19 team, Adrian Amsterdam, says Guyana stand a good chance of retaining the Regional titles in St Vincent.Amsterdam, who is a member of the national senior selection panel, made his prediction as Guyana prepare to defend their titles when the tournament bowls off on July 27 and concludes on August 21.
“We have a group of talented players – five guys from last year,” Amsterdam told the Guyana Chronicle.
Amsterdam added, “We have some excellent players in terms of level of commitment and the talent pool.
“We have Keemo (Paul), the skipper Travis (Persaud), Sherfane (Rutherford), Ronaldo (Alimohamed) and Akinie (Adams), returning from last year, so we have a nucleus that can win both tournaments once more.”
Meanwhile, the squad completed their pre-camp preparation Tuesday at the Chetram Singh Centre of Excellence, La Bonne Intention (LBI), East Coast Demerara, and Amsterdam disclosed that he is pleased how preparation has progressed, despite the inclement weather.
“Our preparation had one setback – the weather, but we used the indoor facility as much as we could – we had one turf session today (yesterday) at GYO, but generally, I am pleased how preparation has progressed,” Amsterdam said.
Guyana are the defending champions in both formats. They won the previous three-day competition which was played two years ago here, and have won the 50 overs-a-side title over the last two years at home and in Jamaica.
This year, the tournament will comprise three rounds of three-day matches, which take centre stage over the first 11 days, and the Youth Super50 which fields seven teams – the six territorial sides from Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Leeward Islands, Trinidad & Tobago and Windward Islands – along with a composite side from ICC Americas.
Each team will play the other once in a round-robin competition, featuring seven rounds of 50 overs-a-side matches, with the two teams accumulating the most points qualifying for the Final to determine the tournament winners on August 21 at the Arnos Vale Sports Complex.
The Guyanese will depart for St Vincent on Sunday.
There were no real surprises in the 14-man squad, with Persaud leading the 14-man squad. The other members of the squad are Ronaldo Renee, Malcolm Hubbard, Keshram Shabodan, Joel Seitaram, Looknauth Chinkoo, Bhaskar Yadram, Joshua Persaud, Sylus Tyndall and Raymond Perez.
(Taken from Guyana Chronicle)