RAIN FRUSTRATE GUYANA AS OPENING DAY WASHED OUT

Mar 14, 2009 Sports

The waterlogged Albion ground yesterday afternoon presented a depressing sight for the players and fans and prospects of play today look bleak.

By Sean Devers at Albion
Heavy overnight and morning rain yesterday washed out the opening day of Guyana’s 10th round WICB regional four-day cricket encounter against the Leeward Islands at Albion without a ball being bowled.
While they can no longer win the title, the Guyanese are hoping to finish the second half of the competition much better than did in the first half when they lost five of their first seven games outright.

The torrential rain left large areas on the ground water-logged and although there was some sunshine late yesterday afternoon, prospects of any play today look bleak.
The area in front of the main pavilion has been left void of grass from the staging of a recent social event at the ground and up to last evening was in a slushy condition.
Guyana are hoping to avenge their outright loss to the Leewards after they had claimed first innings points in Nevis in the first part of the seven-team competition to add to their 20 points they have from eight matches.

The Leewards, with 43 points from seven games, including an outright win against defending champions Jamaica in the last round, are strong contenders in the final race for championship honours and if this game ends in a no-result it will adversely affect their title hopes.
Guyana Manager Carl Moore said his team was very disappointed since all of the players were eager to go into action and play positive cricket to salvage as much points as they can from their remaining games to finish in the top half of the points standing.
Only the Combined Colleges and Campuses (18 points) have less points than the South Americans. But with one more match in hand than the Guyanese, CCC could still finish in a higher position if they collect the same number of points as Guyana in the remaining matches.

After a week’s break for the two One- Day Internationals in Guyana, the Guyanese travel to Trinidad, then to Jamaica before returning home for their final match against Barbados at the Guyana National Stadium.
Moore said yesterday was frustrating for his team coming just after the last day was lost in the CCC match at Bourda with Guyana in a commanding position to win their first game of the season but added that team spirit is high despite the fact that Guyana has not being doing well this season.

“We were hoping to get as much points as we could from this game and players like Narsingh Deonarine who is in tremendous form was looking forward to batting on his home ground for the first time this season. It is disappointing for everyone since the Berbicians have not been able to see first class cricket in East Berbice in a while,” Moore said.

The long-serving Manager added that players like Deonarine, the only batsman with 700 runs this season and West Indies ODI player Leon Johnson who has struggled for his best form since his return from New Zealand, could be especially disappointed if more time is lost in this game since their return to the West Indies team depends on how much they score in this competition.

“Things don’t look too good for tomorrow (today) since the ground is really soft but there is nothing we can do except to hope for the best,” Moore added.
Guyana were robbed of a possible last day win in their last match due to leaking covers and inefficient ground-staff at GCC when three spots from seepage onto the pitch from overnight rain ruined the entire last day. Yesterday there was nothing the ground staff could do as rain pounded the ground and the players could have more free time in New Amsterdam (Guyana’s oldest town) today.