Assad Fudadin

Assad Fudadin, captain of Guyana, believes his team still have what it takes to surprise Jamaica in their West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Regional Four-day Tourna-ment opening round clash at Alpart Sports Club, St Elizabeth, despite not having the services of several of their top players.

Speaking shortly after his team's arrival in the country yesterday, Fudadin, who will lead the team in the absence of West Indies players Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Narsingh Deonarine and Sewnarine Chattergoon and Travis Dowlin, said the team had prepared well, and with an abundance of young talent was looking forward to making a statement.

"We are without most of our senior players yes, but I think we have an eager and pretty good side," said the former West Indies 'A' captain.

"Our preparation have been good and if we play to our potential we can beat Jamaica," he added.

The 25-year-old Fudadin, who was the team's leading run-getter last season, is expected to be alongside former West Indies U-19 captain Johnson and Rajendra Chandrika as they look to lead Guyana's batting attack.

Chanderpaul and Sarwan are away with the West Indies, who are presently in Sri Lanka where they are challenging that nation in a one-day series, while Deonarine and Chatter-goon picked up injuries prior to the team's arrival.

Dowlin was dropped from the team's 13-man squad due to a loss of form.

Johnson played three one-day internationals for the West Indies in 2008, while Chandrika represented the WICB/Sagicor High Performance Centre team during last year's regional 50-over competition here last year.

As it relates to their bowling, much will be expected of spinners Davendra Bishoo and Veerasammy Permaul, who have both represented the West Indies 'A' team, and pacers Brandon Bess, who has a Test match experience to his credit, and Esuan Crandon.

"Cricket don't play with names," said Mark Harper, coach of the team, and brother of former West Indies player and coach, Roger Harper.

"Jamaica will be tough playing at home as they are the defending champions and have a lot of good players in their squad.

"But having said that we have an exciting player in Leon Johnson, who is looking at this match as an opportunity to show his quality," he added.

Guyana squad: Assad Fudadin (captain), Vishal Arjune, Rajendra Chandrika, Shemroy Barrington, Steven Jacobs, Leon Johnson, Royston Crandon, Derwin Christian, Veerasammy Permaul, Davendra Bishoo, Esuan Crandon, Brendon Bess, Rensford Beaton, Mark Harper (coach), Carl Moore (manager).

Stand-bys: Chris Barnwell, Anthony Bramble, Zaheer Mohamed, Andre Stoll, Keon Joseph.