Windies Youth players Ashmead Nedd and Sachin Singh were among some of talented cricketers who were rewarded for their fantastic exploits for Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) over the past year.
At the club’s pavilion in Queenstown on Wednesday evening, the executives held a simple, but significant awards ceremony to recognise the stellar performances of their players and supporters in 2018.
Twenty-nine categories, ranging from Under-13 to First Division, were being considered and among the many who took home a chunk of the prizes were national youth players Nedd and Singh.
Nedd, the senior of the duo, would have played at the ICC Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand earlier this year and leading up to that feat, he would have been a consistent performer for the national youth teams and the club.
Apart from being rewarded for his four five-wicket hauls for the year, he also was won the Clive Lloyd Player-of-the-Year award for being the best second division player.
Singh, who was the lone Guyanese in the Windies Under-15s on a tour to England in 2017, captained the national Under-17 team in the regional tournament this year.
He took home the award for the best batting performance at the Under-17 level. He was also recognised for scoring 171 in a second division match, and most importantly was named the club’s Under-17 Player-of-the-Year.
The talented duo, along with many of the booming talents at the club, were given a charge by guest speaker Dr. Vincent Adams, Director of the Environmental Protection Agency.
“Do what you can control. I know you must be reading all these inspirational books and listening to inspirational speeches that tell you to shoot for the stars, but I didn’t plan my life the way it turned out to be, so I advise a more passionate dedication to the pursuit of short-term goals,” he pointed out.
“Be micro ambitious…again, do what you can control and the one thing you can control is hard work and believe me, you don’t have to be the smartest or have better physical attributes. All you have to be willing to do is work harder than the next person and your rise and accomplishments will take care of themselves.”
Among the other Clive Lloyd Player-of-the-Year Awardees were Johnathan VanLange for both the Under-13 and Under-15 divisions, Nkosi Beaton for Under-19, and Christopher Barnwell who was the First Division Player-of-the-Year.
Beaton was also the Most Improved Player-of-the-Year.
Special awards were also given to Windies senior player Keemo Paul, Windies B Sherfane Rutherford and Youth players Raymond Perez and Joshua Persaud. Club coach Garvin Nedd was given the Colin Wiltshire Award for outstanding performance and success.
Additionally, Shalom Ault, Beaton and Qumar Torrington copped prizes for notable academic achievements at National Grade Six Examinations, Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination respectively.
