By Neil Barry
The New Building Society’s (NBS) latest venue on Avenue of the Republic penciled in a bit of history yesterday when it hosted the launching of the company’s first partnership with the Georgetown Cricket Association (GCA).
The NBS 2012 Second Division limited overs competition will get underway this Saturday and will be played in two zones it was disclosed yesterday.
Yesterday’s opening ceremony featured several speeches from Chairperson of the event, Labour Minister, Dr. Nanda Gopaul; Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr. Frank Anthony; Moen McDoom, incoming chairman of the board of NBS; and former West Indies captain and current GCA president Roger Harper.
McDoom gave his company’s reasons for partnering with the GCA in an effort to contribute to the development of cricket within Georgetown and by extension Guyana. He also shared a bit of musical nostalgia, recalling West Indian history and the joy which has permeated the region through its team’s success. He said that his company felt the GCA, led capably as he recognized by Harper, has the potential to reinvigorate cricket locally and as such, pledged to get involved with the GCA to play a role in a competition where the youth can benefit.
Afterwards CEO Ahmad Khan handed over the checque worth over $900,000 to secretary of the GCA Debra McNichols.
GCA president Harper said that the sponsorship was timely in aiding the GCA in fulfilling its aim of producing quality players who can go on to represent the county, country and region with distinction.
He impressed upon the audience that the tournament will be conducted in a professional manner. The GCA also made special mention of a few of the sanctions which they will be enforcing throughout the duration of this tournament. They stressed the importance of the submission of match report forms post-matches, as negligence of this would result in the captain of the game for which the match report form is not submitted being banned from the next two matches in the competition. Vice President of the GCA, Neil Barry, who relayed the playing conditions, mentioned that any team that gives another a walk over will be required to pay a fine of $15,000 to enter the next GCA second division competition that it wishes to be a part of. There are also strict penalties for teams arriving late, and matches will not commence unless at least seven players are present for a team at the toss of the coin. These rules are to promote professionalism and discipline within Georgetown cricket. The GCA also stated that their rule for seam bowlers is also in effect in this competition. The rule state that pacers must account for 40 percent or two fifths (or 16 overs in an uninterrupted match) of the allotted overs of an innings.
This would not be considered if the team batting is dismissed before the overs are completed provided that the overs not bowled would include and amount to the missing overs from the pacers. This stipulation is to encourage clubs to invest in seamers, which seems to be a dying practice, with clubs often opting for spin based attacks. It is hoped that in the long term, this stipulation enables Georgetown to produce more seam bowlers to represent the county, country and by extension the West Indies. As a penalty 10 runs will be added to the opposition’s score for each over of pace that was not bowled, and since this is a limited overs tournament, these runs will be crucial.
Chairman of the competitions committee Shawn Massiah also released the fixtures for the first round of competition at venues across the city, which will commence, weather permitting, on Saturday.
In Zone A, GCC will play GYO, GNIC are set to play 3rd Class, Everest comes up against Vikings YMCA, as GDF drew the bye in this round. In Zone B DCC will oppose Transport, the University of Guyana opposes Malteenoes, the Muslim Youth Organization plays Police while Ace Warriors drew the first round bye.
