– WICB President’s trophy commences November 13
For the first time ever, nine teams and over 144 players will be gathered in one country in the Caribbean for a first-class cricket tournament, when Guyana play host to the rest of the West Indies from November 13 to 23.
Blairmont in the East to Uitvlugt in the West, Everest in the North to the Guyana National Stadium in the South, are just some of the venues which will host the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) regional limited overs competition here in Guyana with three matches being played simultaneously amongst the three groups per day.
Defending champions Jamaica will open their defence of the title they won last year when they defeated Trinidad and Tobago under lights at the Three W’s Oval in Barbados, against Canada at the world renowned Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) ground.
Host Guyana were scheduled to face the Windward Islands at the Guyana National Stadium in their opening encounter but, according to president of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) and vice president of the WICB Chetram Singh, the Islanders will arrive in two batches for the tournament and Guyana will now play the Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) instead.
“The Windward Islands were scheduled to arrive on November 11 like all the other teams, but for reasons unknown, they cancelled their flight reservations for that date and when they tried to get it back, such was no possible.
However, they will be coming in two batches on Nov. 11 and 12, pushing back their game against Guyana to Nov. 15, “ stated Singh. The other opening game in the tournament which will have none of the big guns representing their country due to the West Indies tour of Abu Dhabi and New Zealand, will pit Canada and the Leeward Islands at the Everest Cricket Club (ECC) ground. The other venue to be used during the nine days of competition where the winner will pocket US$12,000, inclusive of a first prize of US$10,000 and a further US$2,000 from their semi-final win, along with the President’s trophy whilst the losing finalist will walk away with US$2,000, which they would have earned from their semi final win, is the Enmore Community Centre ground.
The losing semi-finalists will each receive US$1,000 while the man-of-the-match in the preliminaries, semi-final and final, will pocket US$150, US$200 and US$250 respectively.
- President of the Guyana Cricket Board, Chetram Singh, second left, briefs the media about the upcoming regional one-day competition. (Clairmonte Marcus photo)
The best bowler, fielder and batsman will each walk away with US$500.
GCB’s marketing executive Ramsay Ali also told the gathering including vice presidents of the GCB, Alvin Johnson and Malcolm Peters respectively, that a special marketing committee had been set up to deal with certain issues with regards to the tournament and recommendations will be put forward to the GCB at an executive meeting which will be held on Friday.
Admission for all matches whether the venue is the Blairmont Community Estate ground or the National Stadium, would be $500 except for the Presidential Suites at the latter, where the admission price would be $1,000.
Parking would be free at all venues also, but for the semi finals and finals which will be played under lights at the National Stadium, a fee of $500 would be charged for the use of the parking facility.
Whilst matches in the preliminaries will commence at 0915hrs, those in the semi finals and finals would commence at 13.45hrs.