Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Feb 26, 2022 Sports
By Sean Devers
Kaieteur News – At the age of 30, Guyana’s left-handed opening batsman Trevon Griffith feels that while better pitches and facilities could help young players improve, he thinks the most important thing for a player’s development is to play more cricket.
“The players just need to play more cricket. The players already put in the work and do what they have to do to better their game but for me, playing more cricket, which has to be organized by the authorities, is very important.
More cricket… the national side has an excellent coach already so I don’t really think Coaching is the problem.
We just need more cricket and a longer season of first class games since players in England, India and all over the world play far more First-class cricket than Guyanese and West Indians.
Match practice in high level competitions is the only way we can consistently compete in Test and ODIs…the older players used to play a lot of First-Class cricket in England but that is not so anymore,” says Griffith.
Griffith played the last of his 21 First-Class matches against the Leewards in 2019 at Providence before missing the last Regional Super50. He was tested positive for Covid-19 all though he showed no symptoms.
The Guyana top order of Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Shimron Hetymer and Skipper Leon Johnson have all failed to register big scores in their first two matches leaving the Guyana Harpy Eagles third on the points table with three matches remaining in April.
Griffith’s First-Class Average is 17.51 with two fifties, but has been named among the standbys for the Harpy Eagles and says he is keen on getting back in the First-Class team.
Griffith last weekend scored a shot filled triple century in the GCA first division two-day final against GCC to become the highest scorer for DCC; surpassing the 273 made by the late Andrew Lyght in 1983 against GYO.
When asked how confident he is of regaining his place at the top of the order, Griffith, who copped four awards in the GCA tournament, said he can only do what he can do.
“Well I can only focus on scoring runs which is the most important thing for me. Being selected is out of my hands and I can only allow the selectors to do their job which is select who they think is best for the national side,” Griffith, who admitted to enjoying playing 50 over cricket the most and T20s.
In ‘white ball’ cricket, he has performed better than in ‘Red ball’ games at the Regional level and explained the differences in his approach in the different formats.
“Well I try and have the same approach to start, but obviously white ball is a bit different whereby you have the fielders inside the 30-yard circle and you’d go over the top early in your innings, while in red ball it’s important to get a start and push on. So for me yes, I bat a bit different in white ball versus red ball,” continued Griffith, who has also played 34 List A and 18 T20s.
Griffith was born in Georgetown, Guyana April, 18, 1991 and grew up in Tucville.
“I attended the North Ruimveldt Multilateral School and growing up for me was not easy as my parents’ struggled, find it hard, but still manage to give us a decent life whereby I was able to peruse my dream,” Griffith disclosed.
“I always played cricket but was into football little bit, but my mother (Selena Thompson) tell me not to play Football because she wanted me to play cricket,” continued Griffith who first joined a club as a 10-year old when he joined GINC before moving to DCC two years later.
Griffith first played for Georgetown at the under15 level at the age of 14 before playing for Guyana at the under15 level in 2005.
“After I played for Guyana under-15 I realized that this is what I want to do for a living and I played for Guyana under19s in 2008 and 2009.
“My most memorable match was for Guyana against Trinidad in the 2015 Super50 finals at Queens Park Oval.” T&T, led by a century from Jason Mohamed, made 200, Guyana were bowled out for 65 with Griffith (31) being the only batsman to reach double figures before he was caught at slip by Pollard off Narine, ended with 6-9.
“My most memorable game at youth level was Guyana against Leewards islands in Jamaica in 2009 because I scored a century,” said Griffith who was the leading run-getter in the TCL Group West Indies Challenge tournament in 2009, scoring 406 runs at an average of 40.
The highlight was a century against Leeward Islands. However, he had a disappointing one-day tournament but had done enough to warrant selection into the squad for the 2010 U-19 World Cup in New Zealand.
“After I came back from youth World Cup I continued to work hard and found myself into the National trials and I was scoring runs and that’s how I was selected in the national team,” explained the left-handed batsman who bowls a bit of off-spin.
Griffith, who made a splendid 85 against Pakistan at the U-19 World Cup, got a wonderful Guyana Republic Anniversary gift when he made his First-Class debut on February 23, 2012 against Jamaica in Antigua as a 20-year-old.
“I always like to bowl but it not something I took very seriously, but I realized that I have the ability to bowl pretty decent and that’s when I started to bowl more,” Griffith added.
“Well since the draft system came about I was selected for Jamaica in the draft and that’s how I played for Jamaica. Life in Jamaica was good…I enjoyed my time where as I blended in well with the culture which is very similar to what we accustomed to in Guyana.
The difference with Jamaica and Guyana is their Night-life, but obviously there is a lot more to do there like adventure wise and other things,” said the dreadlocked player.
“My most memorable match at senior level would be the 2015 Regional Super50 final at the Queen’s Park Oval which we lost,” said Griffith, who made his List ‘A’ debut on October 2009 at Providence when the West Indies U-19s played the Leewards at Providence and has so far played 34 games in this format; scoring five fifties with a highest of 80.
In the final Griffith can’t forget, a century from Dave Mohamed got T&T to 200 but only Griffith who made an attractive 31 before he edged Sunil Narine to Pollard at slip, got into double figures as Guyana were dismantled for 65 with Sunil Narine taking 6-9.
Griffith, who played for many years in Trinidad and also played in Barbados with the HPC, disclosed that the fastest bowler he has even faced is Wahab Riaz, the left-arm fast bowler from Pakistan who he faced at Bourda when Guyana played Pakistan.
Griffith who has no children and enjoys being by himself said that there’s no one person he could single out who has helped him in his career but mentioned Gavin Nedd, Paul Nixon and Donavon Miller.
“If I was not a cricketer what would I be? That’s a good question. I always wanted to play sports so maybe I think football because that’s the other sport I like a lot.”
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