By Orin Davidson
Lennox Cush found himself wedged between a rock and a hard place prior to the Caribbean T20 cricket Championship last month.
Profilic all-rounder Lennox Cush. Photo by Shiek Mohamed
He had to choose between the Guyana cricket team and his fledging business enterprise, and decided on the latter, causing him to miss the national team’s current defense of the CT20 title in Antigua.
It had nothing to do with any rift with captain Ramnaresh Sarwan. Cush wants the Guyanese public to understand clearly that he gave priority to his Star Party Rentals company ahead of returning to the national team.
“I have no problem with Sars, we are good friends, we may have had disagreements, but all that is in the past, I did not make myself available because I wanted to concentrate on my business”, he explained.
Cush was controversially dropped for Guyana’s second game in the IPL Champions League against Mumbai in South Africa last September. Unconfirmed reports indicated a rift with captain Sarwan resulted in his axing, but he dismissed any such thoughts for his absence this time around.
“I took lots of knocks from people in Guyana who feel I left the team because of problems with Sars, but I want to make it clear that was not the case”.
Cush explained that the team’s training camp and the national Inter County T20 competition were staged prior to the Christmas holidays, at a time when business was peaking. “So it would’ve been difficult to give time to the game at the same time”, he said
The Inter County series was used primarily to select the national team and Cush said he reluctantly made himself unavailable.
“I was contacted many times by Sarwan and Chief selector Claude Raphael about playing” said Cush, but he feels Guyana has adequate replacements for his off spin /batsman role.
“There are a few good youngsters who I feel could adequately fill the role, they would do well with the exposure”, he added, stating that playing for Guyana is still among his priorities.
Although he is the most accomplished T20 bowler for Guyana and has two hat tricks, Cush, who played vital roles in Guyana winning the Stanford T20 Cup and last year’s CT20 crown, said the team could manage well in his absence this year.
He feels Guyana had a bad day in their opening game defeat to Jamaica on Monday.
“The boys had one day, where the batting is concerned and I expect them to rebound to win today’s (yesterday) game against England county runners up Somerset.
The allounder felt the run outs of key batsmen Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul hurt the team badly, and the latter batsmen could not overcome the pressure.
The much in demand Cush is also a key member of the United States team and has now turned his attention to getting sharp for the country’s campaign in the ICC Division Three series in Hong Kong. He will leave with the US squad on Saturday, after flying to Florida from snow-filled New York last weekend to get in much needed practice sessions last weekend.
In his last appearance for America, Cush slammed the fastest 50 overs competition century by an American player, against Italy to spearhead a winning performance in the final last June.