By Avenash Ramzan
The National Secondary School Cricket League (NSSCL), organised by the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB), has received corporate support from Demerara Mutual Life Assurance Society Limited, as the board prepares to roll out the second phase of the nationwide tournament on Monday. The company, on Thursday morning, signed off on a deal worth $2.5 million in the presence of GCB members ahead of the restart of the competition next week.
Present at the ceremony were Executive Marketing Manager of Demerara Mutual Life Assurance Society Limited, Clarence Perry, and GCB officials, President Drubahadur, Marketing Manager Raj Singh, Treasurer Anand Kalladeen and Territorial Development Officer Colin Stuart.
While the sponsorship is welcomed, it is just a fraction of the $15 million that has been budgeted for the tournament, according to Singh.
“And we hope this would be a long and fruitful partnership with the Guyana Cricket Board so that we will have more students and more schools taking part in this very important part of our development programme for cricket in Guyana,” Singh stated.
Digicel, Banks DIH Limited and the Education Ministry were partners during the first phase last year, but only the Education Ministry has remained for the second segment of the league.
Commenting on his company’s involvement, Perry related that the primary interest is to see the development of the youth population, and by extension, West Indies cricket.
“[Cricket] as you know, for every West Indian it is something that we cherish, and we see this as an investment towards the overall goals of developing once in the future. Hopefully, these young men can go on to represent us nationally and also internationally, and once again return West Indies cricket to where it used to be. So if we can contribute in any way to making that happen, that’s basically what we would like to do, really to invest in the development of young people, and not just for cricket, but broader,” Perry related to the media.
The NSSCL is geared to create a pathway for young student/cricketers to hone their skills in a competitive environment. President Drubahadur said the Board is indeed grateful for the support given by Demerara Mutual Life Assurance Society Limited, adding that the board is looking to form more partnerships with corporate Guyana.
“We at the Guyana [Cricket] Board since last year took that initiative that for us to improve Guyana’s cricket, and further West Indies Cricket, we need to get back cricket in the schools, since cricket is no longer a sport, but it is more or less a career. It helps when you can go out, and other talent, have some amount of academics behind you name so you can assess situations differently,” Drubahadur pointed out.
The competition will resume on Monday with games across the country.
