The Berbice Cricket Board (BCB), just after calling off its cricket season for the rest of the year due to the rapid increase of COVID-19 cases in the Ancient County, has started to plan for a busy season in 2021 when it is hoped that cricket will finally resume.
Last week, the Board received its first 2021 sponsorship from Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha, for an Under-15 tournament, while on Thursday last, the BCB finalised the sponsorship of its annual female T20 tournament with Nand Persaud Company Limited.
BCB President Hilbert Foster visited the company and held discussions with the company Marketing executive Devesh Persaud.
The tournament would be contested by defending champions Rose Hall Town Metro, West Berbice and New Amsterdam/Canje on a round-robin basis. Foster proudly stated that the BCB is the only county board to organise games for its female cricketers.
The BCB President stated that great effort would be made to play another two tournaments in 2021 for females as the board continues to invest heavily in the Women’s game.
Additionally, the BCB would also seek to arrange matches for the female team to play across Guyana.
Another major plan is to have the powerful Metro Female team play a Rest of Berbice Team during the final of the historic Semi Professional League for an attractive prize package.
With the BCB placing special emphasis on education as part of its developmental programme, one female cricketer would also receive financial assistance to assist with her educational pursuits.
The Nand Persaud Company T20 tournament would begin early in the new year with matches expected to be played at the Area ‘H’ Ground, Rose Hall Canje and Hopetown.
Among the players expected to be on show are West Indies players Shemaine Campbelle, Erva Giddings, Sheneta Grimmond, Shabaki Gajnabi and Tremayne Smartt and the likes Plaffiana Millington, Dian Prahald, Sherica Campbelle, Kantana Mentore and Marian Samaroo among others.
At the end of the tournament, the Selectors would select the Berbice Inter-county team to be part of an intense preparation camp with Head Coach Winston Smith.
The BCB President expressed gratitude to the company for coming on board for the third successive year and assured that the tournament would be well-organised.
He also stated that the company would receive widespread publicity for its sponsorship dollars. Devesh Persaud noted that his company was delighted to support Berbice cricket as it was impressed with the work of the board and its effort to further develop female cricket.
Meanwhile, another three youth cricketers from the West Berbice area have benefitted from the work of the board under its Patron Fund.
The youngsters drawn from cricket clubs in Bush Lot Village received a piece of cricket gear, which were donated by Patron Vickram Bharrat, Minister of Natural Resources.
Two players carried home a pair of batting gloves, while one received a pair of batting pads. Over the last 30 months, over 200 youths have benefitted from donations of cricket gear, uniforms and bicycles, while hundreds more have received educational materials, including school bags.
Foster disclosed that the assistance programme is expected to be expanded shortly, while dozens of youth would receive more cricket gears in a joint project with former Guyana and West Indies opener, Clayton Lambert.
