At the age of 20 years, 273 days, Gudakesh Motie has been rocking the headlines in regional cricket for the past two months.
Motie, who made his First-Class debut in the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Four-Day Professional Cricket League, was a standout and undoubtedly a major reason for Guyana sitting comfortably at the top of the points table after winning all their games to date.

Motie expressed his jubilance over the a superb season: “I’m very happy with my performance; it was a good experience for me playing with the senior guys like [Veerasammy] Permaul and [Leon] Johnson who shared a lot of experience with me on how the pitch is playing at varying times.”
Now with the change in format and new challenges to face, the young spinner is not daunted by the task ahead and is confident he can make the necessary adjustments to the shorter version of the game.

Quizzed about the need for changes, if any, to his game, he said, “No major changes needed. I need to adjust to the conditions presented and bowl as per normal.” However, he hinted that he was currently working on his “arm ball” and having more variations.
In his five First-Class matches, Motie has snared 34 wickets at an astounding average of 11.73; he already has five five-wicket hauls and one match haul of 11-105.

In Guyana’s last game against Jamaica at Sabina Park, he was the chief destroyer in the second innings, picking up 6-33 to help Guyana Jaguars win by 117 runs. Motie is no stranger to taking a large number of wickets, as in 2012, he was the leading wicket taker both for the Guyana Under-19 team and in the Regional Under-19 Three-Day Tournament overall, taking a total of 27 wickets for 15.22 runs each, with an innings best of 7-31.

With respect to his recent performance, Motie said: “I felt very happy, from my first five haul, everything began to feel normal and then it was like usual work.”

Playing Four-Day cricket meant there was a big jump in terms of fitness as longer bowling spells were required, but Motie said this was not a major issue since he was bowling long spells at the Under-19 level.

Admirably, despite his commendable achievements, he is already looking to find areas of improvement, as he stated: “I’m looking forward to next season with the hope to better this season.”
An orthodox left-arm spinner, his bowling has improved tremendously and some pundits of the game will argue that the experiences of playing alongside Veerasammy Permaul and Devendra Bishoo for Albion Sports Club in Berbice are major factors in his success.

(Taken from Guyana Times)