The Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club (RHTYSC), with generous support from Bakewell and the National Milling Company (Namilco) has launched the Champions of Champions 20/20 Tournament.
The launch in the form of an audacious opening ceremony was held recently at the Bakewell head office, Triumph, East Coast Demerara.
The tournament will bowl off on April 21 and end May 26 at Albion and will feature eight of Berbice’s top teams.
Namilco contributed a whopping $400,000 and Bakewell a further $300,000 to the staging of the tournament which will see the top team receiving $200,000, the largest cash purse for a Berbice club tournament.
The runner up team will receive $100,000.
The sponsors will also outfit the four teams that reach the semi-final along with the umpires.
The tournament is set to receive special coverage from TV G and Guyana Times.
Ansa McAl has also come on board to add entertainment value to the final with the company providing hampers for lucky patrons while the finalists will benefit from a peer talk on drug abuse as well as the importance of education.
The main aims of the tournament, organized by the Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club, are to promote the Say No to Drugs; Yes to Education message and to raise funds for the club to purchase a vehicle to transport their teams as well as to be used in philanthropic activity it was revealed.
With players of the caliber of Narsingh Deonarine, Assad Fudadin, Devendra Bishoo, Veerasammy Permaul and other national stars on board, the tournament is expected to be of high quality.
The knockout format is garnered to ensure teams give of their best from the very first matches to be played at Skeldon and Albion grounds simultaneously from 9:30 hrs.
Managing Director of Namilco, Roopnarine Sukhai, credited the late Naeem Nazir, founder of Bakewell, for Namilco’s involvement in the promotion of sport.
Nazir was primarily associated with football and can be credited with the Namilco Foootball tournament which has now been successfully run for six consecutive years.
Sukhai said that Nazir…. “though deeply missed at this time, would have been very happy to see these two companies (Namilco and Bakewell) partnering in promoting sports in the country.”
Namilco and Bakewell have over the years “worked together to ensure each other’s success,” said Sukhai, who stressed that the two companies are hopeful that their new partnership with Berbice cricket can “produce not only excellent cricketers but also excellent entrepreneurs and executives.”
“We hope through this collaboration of businesses, players and fans, that we can find suitable persons to join Namilco/Bakewell/Ansa McAl teams to produce not runs or take wickets, but to help produce goods and services so that our economy continues on its upward trend,” added Sukhai.
Secretary/CEO of the RHTYSC, Hilbert Foster, said that the club was pleased to add another major cricket tournament to its list of activities.
He described the club as “unmatched” in its list of activities that fall under sports, culture, education, social, and community development among others.
