International carbonated beverage Pepsi through local franchise holder Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL) has renewed its successful sponsorship of the Rose Hall Town Youth Sports Club (RHTYSC) Under-19 team for 2009.

The sponsorship which is in its fifth year started in 2004 when the Pepsi brand took over from the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph (GT&T) Com-pany, which had begun sponsoring the club’s anti-drug and pro-education campaign.

The sponsorship for this year is worth $220,000 and 30 Pepsi T-shirts. The funds would be used to cover the cost of transportation, umpiring fees, balls, cricket gears and meals. Secretary/CEO of the RHTYSC Hilbert Foster at the presentation ceremony held yesterday at the Berbice Cricket Board of Control (BCBC) office, hailed the productive and successful relationship between DDL and the club.

Noting that the relationship has been producing positive results, Foster thanked DDL and Pepsi for their  continued support and belief in Guyana’s leading youth and sports club. He stated that the RHT Pepsi Under-19 team is the final development stage for the club’s youth players before they move on to the first division level. Pepsi’s sponsorship has assisted in moulding the careers of players such as Assad and Abdel Fudadin, Royston Crandon, Damon Vantull, Dominic Ricky, Eon Hooper, Naresh Mahadeo and Terrence Madramootoo, among others.

Over the years the RHT Pepsi Under-19 team has been very successful on the cricket field, while off the field they have been actively involved in the club’s anti-drugs and pro-education campaign, charity programmes, founded over 50 jobs for their peers, raised and shared out over $1.2m worth of items over the last six years to 25 NGOs and schools under their self-development project.

Alicia Anderson, DDL Sales Manager for Berbice, in handing over the sponsorship, expressed her company’s pride to be associated with the RHTYSC.  She said that the club’s record of achievement speaks for itself and praised the RHT Pepsi team for successfully representing the Pepsi brand on and off the cricket field, making special mention of the players self-development programme where they are assisting to make life easier for the less fortunate. Anderson then urged them to uphold the high tradition they have displayed in the past.

The RHTYSC/Pepsi Under-19 team is being led by Eon Hooper.