George­town–De­spite go­ing un­der to Ja­maica by sev­en wick­ets in their first round match of this year's West In­dies Crick­et Board Re­gion­al four-day cham­pi­onships at Sabi­na Park yes­ter­day, the Ray­on Grif­fith-led Se­nior Se­lec­tion Com­mit­tee of the Guyana Crick­et Board (GCB) has kept faith with the 11 play­ers who were fit to com­pete in that con­test.How­ev­er, the in-form bats­men in the re­cent­ly con­clud­ed WICB NAGI­CO Su­per50 tour­na­ment, Shiv­nar­ine Chan­der­paul and Ramnaresh Sar­wan who were both in­jured and did not par­tic­i­pate in the first round, will be out of the team for the sec­ond round con­test, a day/night af­fair against Bar­ba­dos at the Guyana Na­tion­al Sta­di­um from Fri­day.Chan­der­paul's 17-year-old son Tage­nar­ine Chan­der­paul who made his de­but last year against the Lee­ward Is­lands and has to date scored 176 runs at an av­er­age of 22.00 with a high­est score of 42, and Chan­der­paul Hem­raj are their re­place­ments.

The younger Chan­der­paul re­cent­ly re­turned from the Un­der-19 World Cup in Bangladesh with the young West In­dies team who fin­ished in sixth place and for whom he was the most con­sis­tent bats­man with two half-cen­turies and one cen­tu­ry.On the oth­er hand, the 20-year-old Hem­raj, who went un­der his first stint at the WICB's High Per­for­mance Cen­tre last year, has played three first class match­es for Guyana since mak­ing his de­but against Trinidad and To­ba­go two years ago, ag­gre­gat­ing 57 runs at an av­er­age of 9.50 with a top­score of 29.He last played for Guyana in last year's Re­gion­al four-day tour­na­ment against Ja­maica at the venue for Fri­day's en­counter and judg­ing from the present form dis­played by the on­ly fit 11 in Ja­maica, can find him­self along with the younger Chan­der­paul in the line­up for Fri­day's match.Tage­nar­inel will be thrust in­to the open­ing po­si­tion along­side ei­ther As­sad Fu­dadin or Sew­nar­ine Chat­ter­goon, while it is left to be seen if Hem­raj will gain a place in the mid­dle or­der, es­pe­cial­ly with the ab­sence of both Sar­wan and the el­der Chan­der­paul.

Mean­while, ap­point­ed cap­tain of the squad Leon John­son, who picked up a knee in­jury pri­or to the team's de­par­ture for Ja­maica, yes­ter­day told Chron­i­cle Sport his re­ha­bil­i­tat­ing work is com­ing along ex­cel­lent­ly, while he is ea­ger­ly an­tic­i­pat­ing his re­turn to the fore.The 26-year-old John­son said he had a bright smile on his face when the doc­tor told him no surgery would be re­quired and will be re­turn­ing for an­oth­er as­sess­ment to­mor­row."I am much bet­ter now than when I picked up the in­jury and even though the doc­tor did not give me a time frame when I can re­turn to play­ing the game, since it all de­pends on how quick­ly the in­jury heals, he made me smile when he said no surgery is re­quired."I was re­al­ly dis­ap­point­ed when I picked up the in­jury as I was look­ing for­ward to lead­ing my coun­try in this tour­na­ment, ei­ther for the first or sec­ond round, but I will be back hun­gri­ly, es­pe­cial­ly af­ter watch­ing them cat­a­pult for 117 in the first in­nings," said John­son.The George­town Crick­et Club left-han­der, who was Guyana's lead­ing bats­man in the said tour­na­ment last year, is of the view that the team should have scored more than the mea­gre to­tal they got in the first in­nings, es­pe­cial­ly af­ter their sec­ond in­nings dis­play.

"Yes, we were miss­ing two key play­ers in Ron­nie and Shiv, but at the same time that should not be an ex­cuse since their ab­sence paved the way for an­oth­er play­er or two to step up and that is not what oc­curred in the first in­nings."He added, "De­spite such, ku­dos must be giv­en to the bowlers who did well to re­strict Ja­maica to 294, with Per­maul (Veerasam­my) pick­ing up a five-for, on such a track that was con­ducive for bat­ting, while our bats­men, led by Vishal 'Cheesy' Singh, post­ed a much bet­ter to­tal in the sec­ond in­nings."I think that de­spite the loss of wick­ets when some bats­men were well set, they showed the kind of ap­pli­ca­tion that was lack­ing in the first in­nings and once they have the same at­ti­tude, they can trump the Bar­ba­di­ans in the sec­ond round from Fri­day."Once again, Christo­pher Barn­well will lead the team in the ab­sence of both John­son and Shiv­nar­ine, with Per­maul as his deputy, while Ju­lian Moore has been added to the coach­ing team as the as­sis­tant to Esaun Cran­don.

It will be the first day/night first class match at the venue and al­so the first of two for Guyana in this year's tour­na­ment, while Bar­ba­dos, who went un­der to the Wind­ward Is­lands by nine wick­ets in the first round which was al­so a day/night af­fair, will be play­ing their sec­ond of four match­es un­der lights.The team: Sew­nar­ine Chat­ter­goon, As­sad Fu­dadin, Chan­der­paul Hem­raj, Nars­ingh De­onar­ine, Tage­nar­ine Chan­der­paul, An­tho­ny Bram­ble, Christo­pher Barn­well (cap­tain), Amir Khan, Veerasam­my Per­maul (vice-cap­tain), De­ven­dra Bishoo, Rons­ford Beat­on, Keon Joseph and Vishal Singh.The man­ag­er is Alvin John­son and the coach is Esaun Cran­don, with Ju­lian Moore as his as­sis­tant.