President of the Berbice Cricket Board (BCB), Hilbert Foster, is planning to launch a Berbice Premier League, hopefully by next year. The lucrative T20 tournament is aimed at putting more money into the pockets of players from the eleven First-Division clubs in the county.
“The idea is we are trying to encourage our young cricketers, so what we will be doing, and I don’t know if it will happen this year or early next year, but the main plan is to have all the 11 First-Division teams whereby we will play on knockout basis,” Foster revealed to News Room Sport on Sunday at Albion.
He added, “They [the players] will be receiving a fee and at the end of the first round, we will be down to six teams and then they will be having a higher amount of money, if it is $10,000 per match or something, then we will down to the semi-finals, each team will receive a higher amount than the first two rounds. Then for the finals we are hoping to pay them a reasonable amount.”
“So instead of giving the clubs the prize money, we will distribute the amount to players equally. Hopefully, as times goes by we will able to raise more funds and pay the boys more.”
Foster, who is in his second term as President, stated this is just part and parcel of a massive plans to plug more finances into Berbice cricket.
A major food and stationery deal is on the cards, which when it materialises, will allow more funds to be pumped into cricket development.
Over 25 players from Berbice, including females, have gone on to play for West Indies across formats. Currently, there is a high percentage of Berbicians in the successful youth and senior national teams.
