Cornelia Ida Cricket Club captain, Akshaya Persaud, says he relishes his team’s success after they won the West Demerara Cricket Association tournament sponsored by Beacon Café.
On Sunday, a high-intensity final at a packed Wales Community Centre ground, witnessed CI beating McGill Superstars by three wickets in a low-scoring affair.
After the match, Stabroek Sport caught up with the first-class player who spoke of the victory.
“First off I must thank the sponsors and the organisers for a well-run tournament and McGill for putting up such a good fight but I want to thank my team for showing their determination and coming out with the win,” he said.
“Winning a final is always a team’s main goal going into a tournament and winning another title for the team and village is a great feeling,” the 22-year-old added.
The top-order batsman, who leads the West Demerara Franchise in the Cricket Guy Inc., Franchise tournament, credited his teammates, particularly the top order and the spinners for their efforts.
“Throughout the tournament, we had total team effort. Every player played their part when called upon and it’s good to see that we carried that some energy into the final and won it.”
Persaud, who also has a younger brother, Ajita, in the side, explained that the win means a lot to him personally and reflects the growth the club has made over the last three years, having consistently groomed the younger players to come through the ranks.
“For the past three years, we’ve been grooming our team. Our team is a very young one. For the past couple of years we didn’t have a ground to train and practice as a team so most of the players would just turn up and play and that would be it but we still made it to a T20 final last year, but for the past year we’ve been doing some work on the ground so most of the players now are training together in the afternoons,” the Guyana Jaguars player pointed out.
“Our goal as a team is to win all the West Demerara competitions and be the number one team in the association because we have the abilities, skills, and talent to do so,” he added.
Persaud, a certified level two coach says that once the ground is completed, he will be dedicating his time to serve the village and members of the club by providing the necessary training they need to continue to strive towards their goal.
