Dear Editor,
At long last pavilions for cricket grounds in Berbice will be named after outstanding Test cricketers as a result of assistance from the Government of Guyana through the Guyana Sugar Corporation.
The Skeldon Cricket Ground will be named after John Trim, the first Guyanese to play Test cricket, and the pavilion at Port Mourant will be named after Rohan Kanhai, Basil Butcher and Joe Solomon. The two ends of the ground will be named after spinner Ivan Madray and Alvin Kalicharran.
The Berbice Cricket Board (BCB) is celebrating its 75th anniversary and requested GuySuCo to name the pavilions after outstanding Berbice cricketers. The corporation willingly agreed after receiving clearance from the government.
Cricket pavilions in Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Antigua, Dominica, St Vincent and the Grenadines and other countries are named after outstanding cricketers.
The celebrations will get underway on Sunday, August 31 with a dinner and presentation ceremony which will be attended by President Donald Ramotar, Dr Frank Anthony, Minister of Sport, and the Regional Chairmen for Regions Five and Six. Test and national cricketers from Berbice as well as outstanding administrators will also be honoured by the BCB, and presentations will be made to the awardees.
The Guyana government through the Ministry of Sport is playing an important role in the celebrations by covering the cost of the dinner and presentations as well as financing the cost of producing a large portrait of former West Indies captain Rohan Kanhai, the most outstanding batsman the county has produced. The Ministry of Tourism has provided tokens and gifts while the Public Service Ministry has made a donation to the celebration.
Among the celebrations planned are the renaming of the BCB office, the Leslie Amsterdam Office; the Hall of Fame for Administrators; a panel discussion; the delivery of 75 hampers to less fortunate families; an essay competition; a public exhibition; and a quiz competition.
Yours faithfully,
Oscar Ramjeet
