Digicel and club representatives pose with the participants of the Big Brother Programme at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence (Photos: Avenash Ramzan)
By Avenash Ramzan
Over two dozen young boys on Saturday morning participated in the first-ever Digicel CPL Big Brother Programme to be held in Guyana. The aspiring cricketers were drawn from rural clubs in Enmore, East Coast Demerara, and Zeeburg, West Coast Demerara.
The enthusiastic youths took part in four basic areas of cricket training- batting, bowling, ground fielding and catching. They were split into small groups and given tips on how to improve their game by the Guyana Amazon Warriors players.
The action-packed one hour session was coordinated by Digicel Guyana, whose Communications Manager Vidya Sanichara said, “We are doing this programme throughout the Caribbean wherever Digicel markets are, especially in the markets where CPL is going to be played.”
Sanichara said Digicel is big on the promotion of youths and this is just another manifestation of that. “So what we try to do, always incorporate that youth element into the cricket, into football, into any sporting activity that we have and the Big Brother Programme is to actually get boys who are interested in the game participating.”
She added, “Today here we have two different cricket clubs, one from Enmore and one from Zeeburg. These are fairly new cricket clubs and they maybe would not have gotten as much exposure as other cricket clubs in Georgetown and so on would have been privy to, so we thought it great to go out of town and get these guys to come and spend some time with the Warriors and spend some time with Digicel to get that hands-on feel of what it is to live their passion.”
Guyana Amazon Warriors Head Coach Roger Harper and Team Operations Manager Omar Khan both expressed pleasure at being able to spend time with the youths, and allow the players to impart their vast knowledge on the group.
The Big Brother Programme is geared to give aspiring cricketers from across the region the opportunity to be mentored by players from the teams in the five territories participating in this year’s Hero CPL.
Phase one, which will run to early August, will see the students involved in the more formal training. They will then ‘Take It To The Streets‘ in phase two, as Caribbean cricket comes alive at the grassroots when the sport will be on display on the beaches and roads across the region.
