National Under-19 batsmen Rampertab Ramnauth and Mavindra Dindyal are among six new players who have been contracted by the Guyana Harpy Eagles for the upcoming season, following the 2023-2024 Cricket West Indies (CWI) Professional Cricketers Draft on Thursday.
Dindyal is set to lead Guyana in the CWI Rising Stars Under-19 Three-Day and Super50 competitions in early July in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Opener Ramnauth, who has played Senior Inter-County cricket for Berbice, is also part of that squad.
The other four first-time contracted players are spinner Junior Sinclair, fast bowler Shamar Joseph, opener Matthew Nandu and wicketkeeper/batsman Kemol Savory.
Each franchise was required to name a list of 10 ‘protected’ players before the draft.
At the draft, each of the six franchises- Barbados Pride, Guyana Harpy Eagles, Jamaica Scorpions, Leeward Islands Hurricanes, Trinidad and Tobago Red Force and Windward Islands Volcanoes- were required to pick five players, one from each of the five rounds.
The Harpy Eagles protected players were Nandu, Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Kevlon Anderson, Savory, Tevin Imlach, Kevin Sinclair, Gudakesh Motie, Veerasammy Permaul, Nial Smith and Ronsford Beaton.
At the Draft, the Ramnaresh Sarwan-led selection panel went for Joseph, spinners Junior Sinclair and Antony Adams, and batsmen Ramnauth and Dindyal.
The Guyana Cricket Board, in a release on Thursday afternoon, said: “In keeping with draft rules, at least two of the selectees were required to be under the age of 25 on October 1, 2023. As such, the Harpy Eagles drafted some six Under-25 players to their side this season. Those players include Dindyal, Sinclair, Ramnauth, Anderson, Nandu and Joseph, all of whom had success with Guyana or West Indies during their Junior levels, which include Under-19, Under-17 etc. Kevlon Anderson regains a contract after being contracted as a CWI Emerging player last year.”
It added: “Savory in particular had been among those who continuously performed and developed over the last few seasons, in both 50-over and Four-Day Regional matches. The wicket-keeper was one of the Harpy Eagles’ prolific run-getters last Four-Day season, with an unbeaten century and half-century under his belt, helping his team to yet another Regional championship title.”
Guyana Harpy Eagles are the reigning champions of the Four-Day Championship. In terms of Super50 cricket, the last time the country won that title was in 2005.
