The Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) commissioned a Donation Box on July 31 to raise funds to develop the talents of less fortunate young players at the club’s Cricket Academy.
According to a release yesterday from the club, at an unveiling ceremony at the GCC, President of the GCC Timothy Tucker said that the Club’s Cricket Academy had been inspiring young cricketers and helping them to fine-tune their skills for over 150 years.
“The Georgetown Cricket Club has an ongoing Cricket Academy … since the inception of the GCC. The GCC is about 161 years old. The club itself has a programme where we mentor and train young cricketers and bring them up into potential cricketers to play for Guyana,” he stated.
The youngsters are divided into several categories at the academy—including under-13, under-15, under-17, under- 19 and second-division players—and many members have gone on to play for local and international youth teams. “Some of the under-15 and under-17 players actually represent the West Indies,” Tucker noted.
The release said that about 120 youngsters are members of the Academy and they practise at the Club twice weekly.
The Donation Box initiative was the brainchild of academy supporter Keith Moonasar, President of the Star Group of Companies.
Moonasar said, “I’ve been coming to the Club for quite a while and I looked at the kids coming off the ground. I came up with this initiative that can see myself and many other donors pooling our resources during the month.”
He added, “We want to do it in a very transparent way so that it could be accounted for and at the end of the day, the right persons get the help.”
The release said that the Club’s Cricket Committee will decide which young players will benefit from the donations and what form the benefits will take.
