– match abandoned,ruled a draw
The final day’s play of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) Inter-County cricket match between the Rest XI and Demerara was abandoned yesterday without a ball being bowled after the teams and officials turned up at the Eve Leary Sports Complex Ground only to find that the venue was not available for their use.
Yesterday was scheduled to be the final day of the four-day encounter and the Rest Team’s batsman Vishal `Cheesy’ Singh must be particularly upset as he was denied scoring his maiden Inter-County century.
Singh was scheduled to resume his innings on 97 with his team on 257-4 in their second innings against Demerara having already captured first innings points.
But the players were greeted with the news that play would not be possible as the ground had been rented out.
President of the GCB, Chetram Singh, yesterday expressed his disappointment with the way in which officials of the Police Sports Club department dealt with the matter.
“When we applied for the ground and they gave it to us we were not told that there will be an event that corresponds with the match. Had we known the venue was unavailable we would have gone to other grounds,” Singh told Stabroek Sports yesterday in an invited comment.
He added:”Everything went well the first three days and we knew nothing of what was about to happen the following day. We were told we could not use the ground because the school (Concord Academy) had already paid and they had to honour the request.”
Singh said that the result will go down as a draw and that the Rest Team secured first innings points.
Singh who said that he tried unsuccessfully to contact Commissioner of Police Henry Greene said they will not be downplaying the issue.
“This has really affected the players since there were numerous players showcasing their performance for the national selectors to make the team for next year’s regional four day tournament,” he said.
Stabroek Sports tried to get a comment from senior executives of the Sports Secretariat of the Guyana Police Force but up to press time were unable to make contact.
Demerara trailed by a massive 347 runs going into yesterday’s final day after making 354 in their first innings in reply to the rest Team’s 444 all out.