Guyana was once a staple of England tours to the Caribbean. From the steamboat passengers of 1930 led by the Honourable Freddie Calthorpe through to Mike Atherton's jumbo jet set in 1998, in all bar one visit to the region their cricketers disembarked at Georgetown on the South American mainland.
Then they pretty much stopped. There was a Super Eight encounter with Ireland in the 2007 World Cup, a couple of one-day internationals against West Indies in 2009 and two wet group games during the 2010 World T20. Then another 14 years of the holiday islands getting dibs on the wallets of the beach-seeking English tourists; white sand and lapping waves preferred to the steamy fringes of the Amazon rainforest.
This absence from one of the Caribbean's cricketing heartlands ends today when Jos Buttler's team meet India in the second semi-final of the T20 World Cup: the defending champions against a side that has been unstoppable. Rohit Sharma and his men are said to be fuelled by a sense of atonement after their heartache in the 50-over World Cup last year and, assuming doubts do not creep in the closer they get to ending an 11-year global trophy drought, they appear to have all bases covered in their XI.
This story is from the June 27, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
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This story is from the June 27, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
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