Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL) under their El Dorado brand in collaboration with the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) launched the 2010 edition of their Inter-County 50-over round robin competition yesterday at the Head Office of the GCB.
Present at the launching of the tournament, which gets underway on Saturday, were executives of the GCB and DDL Brands Manager Maria Munroe, who briefed the gathering with details of the tournament.
President of the GCB Chetram Singh said that the tournament forms part of the preparation for the upcoming regional competition.
According to Singh the inter-county tournament “is used annually to prepare the team for the regional 50-over competition.” This year’s regional competition will begin on October 14 in Jamaica.
“Over the years the selectors would have used this competition to select our national team and this year will be no exception… we hope that these games will give the selectors an opportunity to select the best possible team to represent our country,” Singh said.
The availability of players will certainly benefit the competition as gracing this year’s tournament will be Ramnaresh Sarwan, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Travis Dowlin, Narsingh Deonarine, and Sewnarine Chattergoon among others, including players who participated in the recently-concluded regional Twenty20 competition.
“We are fortunate this year to have all our players available… we’ll have all our top cricketers available and I’m sure it’s going to be a very interesting competition,” Singh stated.
The players will vie for positions not only on the national team for the upcoming regional 50-overs competition but in making the national team they will also be on display to the selectors of the West Indies team that will be touring Sri Lanka. The West Indies team will be selected based on players’ performance at the regional tournament.
“It is a very important competition for our local players and I’m sure that they will make use of this opportunity to showcase themselves to the Caribbean selectors for selection to Sri Lanka… this is a very important competition on the GCB calendar,” Singh noted prior to thanking DDL for their significant sponsorship. Munroe, speaking at the press conference, stated that DDL was once again pleased to partner with the GCB in hosting this year’s tournament.
“It is our pledge to continuously support the development of sports in Guyana and cricket in particular,” Munroe said.
She promised that this year’s tournament will definitely be “bigger and better than previous years” since the company has lots of exciting promotions planned for the competition.
On Saturday, round one of the tournament will see a clash between Essequibo and Berbice at Blairmont, while Demerara will challenge Berbice at Georgetown Cricket Club ground in round two the following day.
Defending Champions, Berbice will be opposed in match one by the Essequibo team from 9:30hrs, then the competition continues on Sunday with Berbice challenging their tougher rival, Demerara at the Georgetown Cricket Club ground.
The round robin competition will then go to Wakenaam where Demerara will face Essequibo on October 6 in the last preliminary match (Round three). The two top teams will clash in the final on October 9 at the Guyana National Stadium, which is a day-night match scheduled to bowl off at 1:30pm.
