By Charwayne Walker
This year will mark the 50th year since Guyana won its first Regional youth cricket championship.
Playing under the captaincy of Queen’s College student Keith Aaron, Guyana outplayed host Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica to captured the inaugural tournament for the British American Tobacco Company Trophy.
Timur Mohamed was the lad wearing the captaincy armband when the land of 0many waters won its second regional under 19 title 1975, the Benson and Hedges Trophy. Timur Mohamed was the man calling plays again when Guyana won championship number 3 in July, 1976.
Latchman Bhamsingh led Guyana to title number 4 in August of 1985 while Andre Percival led Guyana to championships 5, 6 and 7 in 1992, 1993 and 1994. Mahendra Nagamootoo was calling plays when the land of many waters won title number 8 in August, 1995.
Mahendra’s brother Vishal led the land of the mighty Kaieteur Falls to championship number 9 while Ramnaresh Sarwan continued a proud tradition when he led Guyana to championship number 10 in August of 1997. Steven Jacobs was the man in charge when Guyana won championships # 11 and 12 in 2006 and 2007while Brian Sattaur led Guyana to title number 13 which also included the limited overs crown.
Ronaldo Ali Mohamed emulated Sattaur’s feat when he led Guyana to championship number 14 and its fourth Regional Under 19 50 overs title. It should be noted that Travis Persaud led Guyana to two Regional under 19 50 overs titles in 2015 and 2016. Now that the tournament is returning to its inaugural host in 2018 let’s say a special thanks to Keith Aaron’s class of 1968. 50 years ago these were the men that brought the bacon home:
Keith Aaron –Captain
Vincent Adams
William Jeffrey –deceased
Charles Smith
Robin Kendall
Rupert Gomes
Robert Adonis
Errol Jackman
Francis Sutherland
Pooran Singh
Charles Sookdoo
Duleep Cheddie
Mohandass Madramootoo
Hugh Dyer –Manager
It should be noted that the selectors selected a player by the name of Charles Sookdeo. For the records, according to Vincent Adams, this individual never existed and Gladstone Harris had to be summoned to Barbados as his replacement.
