Tucber Park Cricket Club (TPCC) recently completed what was the first official cricket camp to be held in the New Amsterdam area.
The camp, which lasted five days, saw participants involved in matches on the final day, showcasing and implementing some of the skills they learnt.
A small presentation ceremony, held at the Berbice High School auditorium, culminated the camp where over 50 participants were each presented with a medal and a certificate of participation.
Gifts and trophies, which were donated by Trophy Stall, the Berbice Cricket Board and the Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club, were presented to outstanding participants of the camp.
The camp focused on basics skills in cricket, including batting, bowling, fielding and wicket-keeping, along with other life skills.
Life skills presentations were done every morning, followed by cricket skills. Topics like leadership and captaincy, the importance of education, discipline and the rights of a child were covered during the five days.
Anthony D’Andrade presented on leadership and captaincy, while the importance of education and its relation to sports was presented by Carl Ramsammy, a teacher of Canje Secondary School.
The importance of discipline was done by Zaheer Moakan, a teacher of Berbice High School, while Zipporah Joseph, the Child Care and Protection Agency officer of Region Six, made a presentation on the rights of a child and how children should be wary of the different types of child abuses.
On opening day, the Mayor of New Amsterdam, Winifred Heywood, congratulated the participants for attending the historic event and encouraged them to learn as much as they can during the camp. She also mentioned the importance of education and encouraged everyone to find the right balance for sport and education and not to neglect one for the other.
President of the Berbice Cricket Board and Secretary/CEO of the Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club, Hilbert Foster, also reiterated the remarks of the Mayor, while also encouraging the youths to say no to drugs so that they can become good ambassadors of TPCC, Berbice and Guyana.
The coaches who were involved in the camp were West Indies female player and national Under-19 female team coach Tremayne Smartt, former national youth player Anthony D’Andrade, former Guyana and West Indies pacer Colin Stuart, senior Academy coach Michael Hyles and national Under-19 and senior team Academy coach Julian Moore.
Smartt and D’Andrade covered batting and fielding, while Stuart and Hyles did basic bowling (pace and spin) along with wicket-keeping. Moore did a presentation on fielding positions, modes of dismissal of a batsman and running between the wickets.
Coordinator of the camp, D’Andrade, was encouraged by the response of the children who came from as far as Goed Banana Land in Canje.
“TPCC would like to thank Berbice High School for allowing us the use of their facilities not just for this camp, but for the past 20 years and also all the sponsors and those involved in making this camp a success,” the club said in a press release.
