Defending champion, Trophy Stall XI, is slated to defend its title in the GT&T 10/10 softball competition beginning tomorrow following a postponement on account of bad weather.
According to the main organizer Yog Mahadeo, CEO of GT&T, the tournament is set to be bigger than last year’s version with over 1,200 teams registering for the event this time while just 584 teams were registered last year.
The champions will face mighty odds when they come up against their old match-ups along with last year’s runner-up, Crabwood Creek Untouchables, and hundreds of new teams.
In addition to the 600 plus teams added, female teams will also be part of the competition and will have their own category separate from the males, making it an even more interesting tournament.
While efforts made to contact both the manager and captain of defending champions Trophy Stall XI proved futile, Stabroek Sport got on to the distaff side of Trophy Stall XI. Captain of the Trophy Stall Angels Renita Awad via telephone said that “right now our preparations are coming along real good, we just keep practising, it’s just the rain that bugs us,” she said.
Awad also noted, “our target is to win, we have been winning of late and I don’t see any team formed out there as a threat.”
Meanwhile, on the male side of things Stabroek Sport caught up with PRO Roy Jafarally of last year’s semi-finalist Memorex who played the current champions Trophy Stall XI. “We are in our final stages of preparation, the intensity is there, last year we were a bit complacent but this year things are looking good with the changes we have made to our team and management, and we will come out victorious this time around,” he said.
And in a telephone interview with Amid Jairam, captain of Wolf Warriors, a team in this year’s competition that had proven itself as a championship contender in recent competitions, he stated that “we have our team together and training sessions are good.” When asked about his plans for the competition he said, “of course we are going out there to win, that’s our goal.”
Since the tournament has expanded in the number of competing teams, the prize money has also increased with $2M waiting on the winners of the male category while the females are set to walk away with $1M.
In total $10M will be given away, with money being handed out from the Super 16 stage until the finals.
This softball competition which is the biggest tournament of any kind in Guyana is set to attract big crowds and to carry a party atmosphere when it bowls off tomorrow.
