The Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) and Everest Cricket Club launched the inaugural Speakers T20 Club Championship on Friday 19 March 2021. The launch took place at the GCB’s board room, top flat of the regent street office, and was attended by the 20 participating clubs, the main sponsors (some of whom attended virtually), as well as some team sponsors.
The sponsors were all high in praise for the collaborative venture between the governing body for cricket in Guyana, Guyana Cricket Board, Everest Cricket Club, the Speaker of the House – National Assembly and of course to the encouraged participation of corporate Guyana, the sponsors.
The head table featured Orson Ferguson, Chief Marketing Officer at GTT, delivering his comment, highlighted the importance of their contribution to the development of youths, more so, of those in sports, making this a worthy contribution. Communications manager at Banks DIH, Troy Peters, stated that the company held a special place for Cricket, with the T20 format being one of the more exciting of them all, warranting much support.
Speaking on behalf of Digital Media management company, Technify, Latoya Garraway, shared with the audience, briefly, the scope of their responsibility for the tournament. Managing the online presence of the tournament meant Live scores and streaming of competitions, Sponsorship and teams’ information and much more available at Cricket.gy.
Naim Khan of Eniath Printers and Tony Subraj of George Subraj Foundation NY, both attending virtually, and Tropical Delight’s Brand manager, Safie Mohamed shared the sentiments of other sponsors in being equally elated to be a part of this venture, giving them an opportunity to contribute to the development and promotion of cricket in Guyana. MD Assuria, Trophy Stall, Caribbean Education Publisher, among others, have also contributed to the reality of the tournament.
The Hon. Secretary of the Guyana Cricket Board, Mr. Anand Sanasie indicated that the main barrier for the competition since initial conception back in November,2020 was garnering sponsorship. In the same breath, the honorary secretary commended the sponsors for their active involvement to ensuring a successful tournament, through their various but significant contributions. He also congratulated the teams for taking the necessary steps to ensure their participation in the tournament and posited that he was looking forward to an exciting, but safe championship, assuring that the Covid-19 guidelines will be upheld, as with past games held by the Guyana Cricket Board.
He alluded to the fact that the highly anticipated and touted tournament is expected to lift the bar of Guyana’s Cricket and that of domestic cricket in the region.
The Hon. Speaker of the national assembly, Mr. Manzoor Nadir gave remark relating to the concept behind the conduct of the tournament and about the vision for future collaborative initiatives. Mr. Nadir was also high in praise to the sponsors and participating clubs, and indicated the fact that he was confident that the tournament would exceed the expected competitive nature and be promoted in the biggest of ways given the quality of media personnel and the involvement of Techlify. Mr. Nadir echoed Sanasie’s assurance of the strict adherence to the Covid-19 protocols and guidelines.
The 20 clubs participating in the tournament are: From Berbice, Albion Community Centre Cricket Club (Albion), Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club-MS (RHTYSC-MS), Tucber Park Cricket Club and West Berbice. East Coast Demerara, Lusignan Cricket Club and Bel-Air Rubis-EC. Georgetown, University of Guyana Trojans Cricket Team, Everest Cricket Club, Police Sports Club, Malteenoes Sports Club, Gandhi Youth Organization Sports Club (Regal), Demerara Cricket Club and Georgetown Cricket Clubs. West Demerara, Rising Stars Cricket Club, Canal no. 2 Sports Club, New Wales Superstars, Mc Gill Super Stars Sports Club, Belle Vue Sports Club, Cornelia Ida Cricket Club. Essequibo is represented by Bacchus Sports.
Noticeably Albion Community Centre Cricket Club (Albion) and Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club-MS (RHTYSC-MS), will field players with national experience at both the senior and junior levels. Albion will feature Devendra Bishoo, Veerasammy Permaul, Gudakesh Motie, Anthony Bramble, Jonathan Foo, Shimron Hetmyer among other talented players. RHTYSC-MS will field players such as Clinton Pestano, Kevlon Anderson and Kevin Sinclair who recently made his debut for West Indies.
In Demerara, there are some teams with fewer top performers that may rely more on game strategy and tactics to win the tournament. These include but are not limited to Lusignan, Belle Vue, Rising Stars, New Wales Super Stars and the like. Cornelia Ida Sports Club (CI). CI will be led by national player Akshaya Peersaud and includes Ritche Looknauth, while Mc Gill Super Stars Sports Club will be skippered by Travis Persaud and includes players such as Ronaldo Renee, Kheshram Seyhodan and Andre Seepersaud.
For clubs in Georgetown, Georgetown Cricket Club will be led by Devon Lord and will include Leon Johnson, Robin Bacchus, Ronaldo Ali Mohamed. The Evererst Cricket Club will field names like Chanderpaul Hemraj, Rajendra Chandrika, Bhaskar Yadram, Tagenarine Chanderpaul Amir Khan and youth player Matthew Nandu. The Malteenoes Sports Club will have players turning out for them, such as Steven Jacobs, Shemroy Barrington, Shaquille Williams, and Kellon Carmichael. Whereas, players such as Christopher Barnwell, Trevon Griffith, Tevin Imlach, Joshua Persaud, raymon Perez Steven Sankar Sachin Singh, Qumar Torrington and Raj Nannan would appear for the Demerara Cricket Club
The championship offers teams the opportunity to vie for both of the GYD 1000, 000 worth prizes. That is, in attaining the championship title and securing the team with player that will be awarded as the Most Valuable Player of the tournament. However, apart from those two main prize attractions, teams have the opportunity to win other consolation prizes, inclusive of a valuable GYD 500, 000 2nd place prize, GYD 200, 000 3rd place prize and GYD 100, 000 4th place prize, among others. The tournament commencing on the 3rd April 2021 and will conclude by 5 May 2021. All Covid-19 protocols will be in full effect. The match draw which occurred after the launch will be circulated in the new week. (This is an official release from the Guyana Cricket Board)
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