West Indies Local: Guyanese still upbeat

Guyanas cricket manager Pat Legall is still optimistic about his teams performance come Friday when they play Barbados without Carl Hooper.

The adjustment is not all that big as people are making it look like. Most of the men in our side are seasoned players and some have played professional cricket in England, Canada, United States, so I dont think that the adjustment will really hamper them, said Legall, as the team got net preparation at Weymouth A yesterday.

If Hooper were here it would be a great advantage to the side. He is a great motivator in a side and he can get the men to give something extra.

Hooper, who lives and plays professionally in Australia, was expected in Barbados yesterday, but was not granted permission by the club.

Legall said that it was a matter of moving on and staying confident.

We have to forget that Hooper is not here and play the game that we came to play, and we came to play to win. We still are confident we have a balanced team.

We have a lot of spin, a couple pace bowlers, and we have a lot of batsmen who can give us a big total against Barbados especially.

Hooper's replacement is left-hander Andre Percival, a former West Indies Under-19 captain, while left-arm spinner Neil McGarrell takes over the captaincy.