Everest and the Guyana National Industrial Corpora-tion cricket teams will clash from today in the final of the Cellink Plus Cup first division three day cricket competition at the Georgetown Cricket Club ground.
Prior to the start of the game which is scheduled for noon, the two teams will meet with representatives of the sponsors Guyana Telephone and Telegraph company (GT&T) who will also present to Georgetown Cricket Association president Alfred Mentore a cheque for $750,000.
GNIC is expected to be without the services of the former West Indies player Clyde Butts.
The veteran off-spinner is the leading all rounder in the tournament but is reported to be in South Africa with the West Indies team for the upcoming Champions Trophy tournament.
Butts, chairman of the West Indies selection committee, played a key role for GNIC in their semi-final clash against Malteenoes Sports Club which GNIC won outright.
He made 27 in his team’s first innings score of 277 all out and then picked up six wickets in the match.
Undoubtedly GNIC’s bowling is their strength and with Butts missing the batsmen will need to step up over the course of the next three days.
They will rely a lot on national U-17 opening batsman Quincy Ovid-Richardson, Shawn de Souza, David Dick, Elton Baker, Ranole Bourne and Dexter Solomon.
In the absence of Butt’s his son Collis could be the main threat.
With players of the caliber of Abilash Dookie, Rajendra Chandrika, Ryan Rajmangal, Chris Pattadin, Troy Gonsalves and Joseph Perry in their line up batting is undoubtedly Everest’s strength.
In a nutshell the final could well boil down to a battle between the bowling of GNIC and the batting of Everest.
The match ends on Sunday.