Harper urges Guyana to get fit for TT match

GEORGETOWN: Former West Indies coach Roger Harper is urging Guyana’s cricketers to make physical fitness an important factor as they head into the 2005 Carib Beer Series next month. As Technical Adviser for the Guyana squad during their three-week preparation camp, Harper told the players during a camp-launching session at the DCC Pavilion on Friday that they need to be in solid physical condition when they start the two and a half month-long tournament early next month against Trinidad and Tobago. “One of the things we are going to pay attention to is our fitness. What has to be our objective this year is that we start in front.

“That means we hit the ground running,” Harper said.  “From the time the bell rings we are ready,” added the 41-year-old Harper, who played 25 Test matches and 105 One-Day Internationals for the West Indies between 1983 and 1996 as an off-spinning all-rounder. The 41-year-old Harper called on experienced spinners Mahendra Nagamootoo and Neil McGarrel, labelling them as “elder statesmen” in the team, to set the example for the younger players.

Harper, who sought not to renew his contract as West Indies coach in March last year after the team’s first round exit from the World Cup in South Africa, is assisting national coach Albert Smith with preparation of the Guyana squad in the camp that ends on January 4. After losing their regional One-day title to Trinidad and Tobago in October, Guyana open their Carib Beer Series four-day campaign on January 7 in an away match against the twin-island republic at the Frank Worrell Development Centre in central Trinidad.