The Guyana Cricket Board and Everest Cricket Club-organised Speaker’s T20 Club championship is set to bowl off April 3 and end May 5 with 20 teams taking part.
The premier first-division tournament was launched yesterday in the top flat of the GCB’s Regent Street office which also saw the draft conducted.
Overlooked by Assistant Territorial Development Officer/Administrative Assistant, Kavita Yadram, team representatives were given the opportunity to pull their names from a box for the group in which they would play.
Berbice giants, Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club and Albion Cricket Club have been drawn in Group D alongside Georgetown powerhouse, Everest Cricket Club as well as West Demerara juggernauts, Cornelia Ida and Canal No. 2.
In Group C, Georgetown goliaths, Demerara Cricket Club find themselves alongside Berbice duo, Tucber Park and West Berbice as well as Belle Vue and Essequibo livewire, Imam Bacchus.
Group B sees University of Guyana Trojans, Bel Air Rubis, McGill Sports Club, New Wales and Malteenoes Sports Club pitted against each other while in Group A, Georgetown Cricket Club, Police Sports Club, Lusignan, Gandhi Youth Organisation and Rising Stars are down to battle. The tournament is set to be a round-robin format with the venues to be decided. One team will draw a bye in every round. Most matches will be set on the weekends.
According to Territorial Development Officer, Colin Stuart, the winning team will pocket one million dollars with the runners up taking home $500,000 while third and fourth place finishers will cart off $200,000 and $100,000 respectively. The Most Valuable Player will walk away with $1,000,000.
Speaking on behalf of Banks DIH, Public Relations Officer, Troy Peters, said that the company was happy to be involved in the tournament and wished the participants well. GTT representative, Orson Ferguson, expressed his company’s happiness to be part of the inaugural tournament and reiterate the company’s position that sports plays an integral role in society especially by developing the minds of the young. He stated that any effort to further sports is one the company would support and the telecommunications giant looks forward to keen competition and fun in a safe environment.
Latoya Garraway of Techify explained that through their company, the matches will be streamed live and distributed through all the social media platforms.
GCB’s Anand Sanasie revealed that it was long before Manzoor Nadir became speaker that there was an idea to have a tournament of this nature, owing to the fact that in recent memory, there was no national club tournament of this kind.
Sanasie, who is the presidential candidate for Cricket West Indies projected that this tournament can serve as a feeder for the Guyana Amazon Warriors and by extension Cricket West Indies.
He asked that everyone involved follow the rules and guidelines set out in the playing conditions and urged the players and officials to be responsible since no spectators are allowed.
Meanwhile, Speaker of the National Assembly, Manzoor Nadir says that he envisions the competition evolving into a regional club tournament.
Some of the sponsors include GTT, Banks DIH, Eniath Printers, TNT Virtual, George Subraj Foundation NY Virtual, Assuria, Techify, Trophy Stall and Tropical Delight.
