Excitement is building ahead of the One Guyana T10 Tapeball Blast, which was officially launched on Saturday morning at RS53 RestoBar and Lounge at Amazonia Mall, Providence, East Bank Demerara.
The inaugural competition, set for July 29-30, will feature 32 teams playing in a knockout format and vying for a first-place cash prize of G$1 million. The runner-up will pocket G$300,000.
On July 29, matches will be held at the Police Sports Club, Guyana Defence Force and Queen’s College Grounds.
The final will be at Everest Cricket Ground the following day.
Present at the media launch was Chairman of the National Sports Commission Kashif Muhammad, Vice-chair Cristy Campbell, former Guyana and West Indies captain Ramnaresh Sarwan, former national cricketer and now businessman Steven Jacobs, Natasha Persaud of title sponsor Kares Engineering, representatives of other corporate partners and some players of the various teams.
Kares Engineering apart, the tournament has received corporate backing from Mohamed’s Enterprise, Banks DIH Limited and Continental Transport among others.
What they said
Romario Samaroo, Tournament Director: “As a group, we wanted an event that sparked the interest of the common man, an event that takes us back to our childhood, the first days of bat and ball in the yard, in the streets, and in the schools.
(We wanted to do) something cultural, something that encapsulates what it is as a youngster emulating the shots with the finesse of legends and what better to do so than tapeball cricket, a game in a league of its own where 10 runs an over can be defended one day or 20 runs an over could be mowed down on the next.
We have seen the appetite for people playing Tapeball in Guyana- it extends to everyone who is a fan of the sport and has no boundaries. This tournament is a catalyst for both family-oriented fun, fitness, passion, camaraderie and love, fitting firmly into the mantra that has swept the country by storm over the last few years, One Guyana.”
Kashif Muhammad, Chairman of the National Sports Commission: “Like we’re all saying, ‘One Guyana’, I can see this contributing seriously to the building of Guyana through sport…and if we can have 32 teams coming from right across the country- all 10 regions- this augers well. This is an excellent idea and I can see this growing. Hopefully it can grow into one where it won’t just be teams from Guyana alone.”
Steven Jacobs, former national cricketer: “Sport in general is important to the development of people- it brings about discipline, it brings about control of emotions, it brings about challenges, it brings about winning and losing and how to deal with it. I would just like to encourage the tapeball lovers and people right across Guyana to come out and support this tapeball tournament.”
Natasha Persaud, Representative of Kares Engineering: “In 2011, Kares Engineering Inc. held the largest T10 Tapeball competition in Guyana with over 1,200 teams participating in this countrywide event over a two-month period. Today we’re very pleased to be associated with the One Guyana T10 Tapeball competition as the title sponsor. We are aware that sport, especially cricket, unites every Guyanese and we are in full support of the One Guyana concept in helping to bridge our differences.”
