Confident Guyana U-19 team depart for regional tourney, hunt 13th title

By Rajiv Bisnauth –

The last time Guyana won the Regional Under-19 Championship was 2007 when the tournament was held in Basseterre, the St Kitts capital. On that occasion the national team was led by Malteenoes all-rounder Steven Jacobs. Now, six years later, the tournament returns to a familiar hunting ground where the Guyanese also celebrated championship honours in 1993 and 2007.

The 14-man squad is led by Shawn Perreira, along with manager David Black and coach Adrian Amsterdam, departed Guyana on Wednesday, confident of doing well at the upcoming tournament which is in its 46th edition.
In an invited comment before the team departed the Windjammer Hotel for the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Amsterdam said that despite the inadequate preparation, the team is confident of doing well, adding that the team would be going all out to win the title.
“We are upbeat, despite the lack of preparation,” said Amsterdam.
“The advantage we have this year is that the team has ten players who played in last year’s tournament, so the experience at this level is there and add to that we have Chanderpaul (Tagnarine) who has played for Guyana at the highest level, so we have a team that is capable of winning”.
The West Indies Cricket Board’s premier regional youth tournament will commence on Friday. The three day format consists of five rounds of matches.
The six traditional regional teams: Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Leeward Islands, Trinidad and Tobago and Windward Islands will be joined by the ICC Americas Under- 20 team for the 50-over leg which commences on August 10 until August 20.
The full tournament will consist of 36 matches (15 three-day and 21 50-over) played over 12 rounds.
The regional youth tournament dates back to 1968 when it was contested under the British American Tobacco Series. It has been the main scouting ground for the region’s finest talent that go on to grace the international stage in West Indies senior colours.
Most of the current Windies players found their footing in the regional under-19 tournament before going on to represent the Caribbean in Test, One-Day and Twenty20 International cricket.
The squad reads: Shawn Pereira (Captain), Brian Sattaur, Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Shimron Hetemyer, Kamesh Yadram (Vice Captain), Ricardo Adams, Akshay Homraj, Denesh Mangal, Gudakesh Motie-Kanhai, Vishal Narayan, Steven Sankar, Herry Green, Dexter George and Romario Shepherd- De Jonge.