Ramnaresh Sarwan ...Guyana's Cricketer-of-the-Year. - file

georgetown, guyana, cmc

West Indies vice-captain Ramnaresh Sarwan was Thursday named Guyana's senior Cricketer-of-the-Year by the Guyana Cricket Board.

The award for the 26-year old comes after his outstanding form in the second phase of the 2005-06 Carib Beer regional first-class competition, and his sound captaincy in the inaugural Stanford Twenty20 regional competition. Sarwan, back home after being forced out of the current Pakistan tour through injury, scored centuries against Trinidad and Tobago and the Windward Islands in the Carib Beer tournament earlier this year, finishing with 350 runs to top the aggregates for Guyana.

Captain debut

He made his debut as Guyana senior team captain in the final preliminary round of the Carib Beer competition in Grenada and then exhibited astute leadership skills to lead Guyana to the US$1 million Stanford Twenty20 first prize.

Sarwan edged out middle order batsman Travis Dowlin who scored heavily in both the Carib Beer and Twenty20 competition, and was selected on the West Indies 'A' team for the home series against Sri Lanka 'A'.

He also got the nod ahead of batsman Narsingh Deonarine, who also contributed in all-round fashion to Guyana reaching the Carib Beer semi-finals and winning the Twenty20 title. He was also selected to the West Indies 'A' squad.

West Indies Under-19 left-hander Gajanand Singh, the leading run scorer with 417 runs in the 2006 TCL regional Under-19 competition, was named the GCB's Young Player-of-the-Year.

Singh contributed significantly at Division One level for his Berbice club and also made an impact for Young Warriors, the eventual national Twenty20 champions. Singh was chosen ahead of his Guyana Under-19 skipper Steven Jacobs and left-arm spinner Veersasammy Permaul.

Jacobs led Guyana to their first Under-19 title since 1997 and was the leading all-rounder in the tournament while Permaul was the leading wicket-taker.

Twenty-six year-old Malteenoes Sports Club all-rounder Deon Ferrier took the award for the senior domestic Cricketer-of-the-Year for his fine performance at the local level. It prompted his subsequent call up for the Stanford Twenty20 competition.

All-rounder Esuan Crandon was named Guyana's Most Improved Player for his performances in the Stanford Twenty20 and the Carib Beer Series.

He captured a seven-wicket haul against Trinidad and Tobago including that of Brian Lara's during the four-day first class competition and also played his role with the bat in leading Guyana to the Twenty20 final.