The official bank of West Indies cricket Scotia Bank will be celebrating its 12 years of its Kiddy Cricket programme and this year the winners of bank’s primary school competition will be on show during the lunch break of the first ODI between the West Indies and Zimbabwe at the Guyana National Stadium today.
The countrywide primary tournament was held in eight zones and Mahaica/Mahaicony/ West Berbice zone was completed yesterday. Latchman Singh Primary school will now join Georgetown’s St. Agnes, Upper Demerara/ EBD’s Grove Primary, ECD’s Golden Grove Primary, Essequibo Islands/Bartica’s St. John the Baptist Primary, Berbice’s #48 Primary and EBE/West Demerara’s Meten-Meer-Zorg Primary to be on show.
They will be performing various skills in batting, bowling and fielding. The programme was also partly organised by Cricket Development Officer in the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) Reon King.
On Tuesday Manager of Products and Marketing Jennifer Cipriani said that the programme has reached another milestone. She noted that while the bank does business globally, it believes in building relationships locally “and supporting the communities where we live and work”.
And for this reason she stated that the entity was pleased to be associated with WI cricket. She reflected on the Kiddy Cricket programme starting with 87 schools 1998 and now the programmed has reached over 2500 schools in the Caribbean donating equipment and “brought joy to thousands of children”.
“Our sponsorship and commitment to West Indies cricket goes beyond just delivering cricket equipment, it also involves education and positively shaping young minds while at the same time laying a foundation for the future of cricket in Guyana and the West Indies”, Cipriani stated.
She was also optimistic that Kiddy Cricket will contribute to identifying and developing great cricketers who will restore the level of cricket to the glory days that many people knew. She also took time out to thank the Ministry of Education the GCB and King and the coaches that worked with the children on the anniversary for making the programme a success.
