A confident 14 member national women’s cricket team along with manager Angela Haniff and coach Vibert Johnson departed Guyana yesterday at 12:05pm for Grenada where they will participate in the 2003 West Indies Women’s cricket tournament which commences tomorrow.
This is the third year that this country will be taking part in the regional women’s competition since making their re-entry to the competition for the first time in 20 years in St. Vincent in 2001.
Guyana finished third last year when the competition was held in Guyana with St. Lucia winning the round robin stage and Trinidad and Tobago taking the knock out title.
The manager told Stabroek Sports just before the team departed that she is confident that her team will do well in the seven team competition despite the last minute confirmation of Guyana’s participation.
“There was a worry that we would not have gotten sufficient funds to make the trip to Grenada. But we raised some funds on Saturday and now our main aim is to bring back the title,” Haniff said.
Haniff, in her first year as manager, said that although the team is a young one with only skipper Diane Ferreira James over 23 years of age, every member has represented Guyana at the senior or under-23 level before. She informed that Natasha Gangoo, from Blairmont in Berbice and Devyani Seonarine and June Ogle from Demerara are the only members of the squad who did not play in last year’s competition.
The team, which was selected last Sunday from two trial matches on the National Park Tarmac, is made up of 10 Demerara players and four players from Berbice and was expected to have their first practice session in Grenada today.
Haniff said that after the rain spoiled Essequibo’s chances of playing in the inter county competition which Demerara won, the Essequibo officials were asked to send players from that county to the trials but unfortunately no one from Essequibo gained selection on the team.
The team had its final practice session in Guyana on Friday at the GYO ground and is being led by the versatile Ferreira James who missed last year’s competition due to her commitments as a FIFA football referee.
Ferreira James led the side in 2001 and has as her deputy Candace Atkins who represented the West Indies women against Sri Lanka this year.
Abina Parker, who led the team last year and national under-23 vice captain Indomattiee Gordyal are also in the line up which is missing off spinner Anabel Lewis, Guyana’s best bowler last year.
Lewis, a student at the New Amsterdam Multilateral School, was forced to miss the tour due to her CXC exams and will be a big loss to the bowling attack.
Once again the competition will be played on a round robin basis with a knock out competition with a separate trophy to be played for.
Haniff is asking the public to support the young team and promised to do her best to ensure the trophy is brought back to South America when the team returns home on June 29.
Coach Johnson, also in his first year as coach, said that he was satisfied although he felt that the time to prepare the girls for such a tournament was too short.
“Our strength is our batting but we have a balanced team with most of the young ladies being able to bowl medium pace,” Johnson informed.
He added that while Lewis’ absence will be greatly missed, the girls all have the ability to win the competition.
“The girls have all played for their county before and while we need to work a bit harder on some aspects of the game, I have no complaints on the physical aspects of their cricket,” Johnson pointed out.
The manager thanked all those, especially the Guyana Cricket Board, GT&T, Delmur Shipping and the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture, for their assistance in making the trip possible.
The full team is-Diana Ferreira James (Capt.), Candice Atkins (V/Capt.), Abina Parker, Fay Franklyn, Indoomattie Gordyial, Tracy Miller, Sabrina Munroe, Michele Fitzalbert, Tracy Glasgow, Onika Wallerson, Joann Vansertima, Natasha Gangoo, Devyani Seonarine and June Ogle.