By Iva Wharton
Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company Limited Yog Mahadeo Saturday night said that the staging of this year’s nationwide softball tournament had contributed to the development of female cricket in Guyana.
Mahadeo made the statement at the presentation ceremony following Trophy Stall Angels’ triumph over 4R Lioness in the final of the women’s Open competition which attracted 116 female teams.
“How often have you seen females come out to finals like this and on a national stage. It has done a lot, when you look at how the women play it makes you proud and I am proud that our company has been able to bring ladies from across the country like this, but not as spectators but to actually play the game,” the CEO stated.
Close to 10,000 persons turned out Saturday night for the final of the nationwide tournament which has seen GT&T pumping $30m in prizes and giveaways into the two month long tournament which commenced on March 11.
And, in an invited comment, coach of the winning team Lyndon Wilson said that discipline was the key to the team’s success.
“The team stuck to the plan which saw them coming out successful,” Wilson told this newspaper.
Team captain June Ann Ogle said she expected her team to win and credited the victory to hard work.
Wilson agreed. He said that Ogle was one of players who worked hard to ensure that the team came out on top. He added that while he was expecting his team to win, he did go into the competition under estimating the opponents.
In the male Open final, Regal XI stunned defending champions Wolf Warriors winning their highly anticipated match up by six wickets. And, in an invited comment, captain of Regal XI, winners of the male Open competition Troy Higgins, said that he was confident of his team winning the competition given the type of work that had put in during the tournament.
“I really can’t explain how great I feel at this moment. It was very hard to think that we would have been here at this stage. Is (Was) everybody voting against we. We came as the underdogs but we know that we had to play better cricket out here.”
Higgins said Saturday’s match was the second meeting between the two teams and it was a revenge match for them, given that Wolf Warriors defeated them previously. “Well is always harder when we play in a different competition with a different amount of overs and just put ourselves together one time because we were in it for quite a while and we premeditated the 10/10 win and we pulled it off.” Ayume Mohamed was adjudged Man of the Series as he was not out in three matches while June Ogle was Woman of the Series for her phenomenal run in the competition.
Trophy Stall Angels walked away with the cash prize of $1 million while Regal XI with $2 million.
