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GUYANA CHRONICLE Saturday, October 27, 2018
Hetmyer staying focused despite IPL rumblings … tipped to be next million-dollar signing PUNE, India (CMC) – Lefthander Shimron Hetmyer has already been tipped by India spin legend Harbhajan Singh to be the next million-dollar buy in the Indian Premier League (IPL) but the batting star says even though playing in the IPL was in his future plans, representing West Indies was his only focus at the moment. The 21-year-old smashed a 78-ball 106 in the opening One-Day International in Guwahati last Sunday, prompting Harbhajan to label him the “next million-dollar baby in the IPL” on Twitter. “It’s a good feeling to know that one of the great spinners from India has rated me that high,” Hetmyer said. It is a dream of mine but right now I am taking one step at a time, so I would see what awaits. But right now, I am focused on representing West Indies.” He added: “I think everyone aspires to play in the IPL but first you want to represent West Indies. That is possibly the biggest thing you could possibly do as a cricketer and then you would take it from there.”
Shimron Hetmyer has carved out scores of 103 and 94 in the first two ODIs.
Hetmyer endeared himself to the Indian fans with his scintillating strokeplay, lashing half-dozen fours and sixes to mark his third career ODI hundred and third this year alone. He followed up in the second ODI in Visakhapatnam with a high quality 94 off just 64 balls with four fours and seven huge sixes, once again
reiterating his form in the shorter format. Hetmyer struggled in the preceding two-Test series with 50 runs from four innings and said he had put that experience behind him. “I had a bad Test series. It was not one of the best ways to start a series in India but from there on I tried to forget about that as much as possible and
the senior guys helped,” he explained. “They said, ‘don’t worry’ and ‘look forward to the next game’.” Hetmyer has played just 14 ODIs after making his debut last December on the tour of New Zealand but amazingly has been selected for just two Twenty20 Internationals.
GFF participates in FIFA’s Connect Workshop TWO staff members of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) participated in the October 25-26 FIFA Connect workshop which was held in Bridgetown, Barbados. Competitions Director Ian Alves, and Coaching Education Officer Lyndon France represented the GFF at the seminar, which sought “to explain the FIFA Connect programme to the invited FIFA Member Associations and allow them to participate in the testing and training on the FIFA Connect Platform registration system.”
Lyndon France
CRICKET QUIZ CORNER (Saturday October 27, 2018)
COMPLIMENTS OF THE TROPHY STALL-Bourda Market & The City Mall (Tel: 225-9230) & CUMMINGS ELECTRICAL COMPANY LTD-83 Garnett Street, Campbellville, Georgetown (Tel: 225-6158) (1) (2)
Answers to yesterday’s quiz: Courtney Walsh-44 wickets Kapil Dev-43 wickets
Today’s Quiz: (1) Which WI has contested most ODIs against India to date? (2) Which Indian has played most ODIs against the WI to date? ANSWERS IN TOMORROW’S ISSUE
The FIFA Connect Programme is a virtual database, which helps every Member Association to register all their stakeholders in a systematic way including players, coaches and referees wherever they are in the world. It provides each registrant a unique identification code to enable easy management while aiding issues relative to receiving compensation for international transfers and ensuring protection of minors. Among the areas to be discussed at the seminar are: FIFA Connect programme concept and principles, training and testing sessions on the FIFA Connect Platform, presentation of the support and user guides, and handover of the access to the system. According to a FIFA correspondence, at the end of the workshop each participating member association will receive “dedicated access to its registration system enabling registration of clubs, players,
Ian Alves
coaches, referees and officials.” The programme, being facilitated by FIFA Connect Support and Implementation Officers, Mitchell Woods and Edison Gomez, is featuring participants from Aruba, Barbados, Curacao, Dominica, Grenada, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Turks and Caicos and Trinidad and Tobago.
FIFA approves prize money increase for 2019 Women’s World Cup
KIGALI (Reuters) - FIFA will increase the prize money for the Women’s World Cup from $15M to $30M starting with next year’s edition in France, president Gianni Infantino announced yesterday, though critics immediately said the increase was not enough. Following a FIFA council meeting in Rwanda, the Swiss-Italian also said that $20 million would be made available for pre-tournament preparations, meaning that $50 million in total would be allocated across the 24 participating nations. The prize money is double the amount awarded in the 2015 World Cup in Canada and for the first time clubs will be rewarded for their players taking part in the tournament, as is the case in the men’s edition. “It’s a very important message for women’s football. It will certainly boost this World Cup even more,” Infantino told a news conference. However, global footballers’ union FIFpro said the changes were not enough to redress the inequality between men’s and women’s football worldwide. “FIFPro notes the willingness of FIFA to increase prize money for the Women’s World Cup and make structural improvements to support women’s football. However, despite these changes, football remains even further from the goal of equality for all World Cup players regardless of gender,” a FIFpro statement said. “In reality, the changes actually signify an increase in the gap between men’s and women’s prize money. This regressive trend appears to contravene FIFA’s statutory commitment to gender equality. “We strongly support our members, women’s national-team players in multiple countries, who have written to FIFA in recent days expressing their dismay about the distribution of prize money.” Players’ unions in Australia, Norway, Sweden and New Zealand had written to world soccer’s governing body to protest that even with women’s prize money being doubled, the rewards in the men’s game still dwarf the new amounts. The total prize money for this year’s men’s World Cup in Russia was $400M, with champions France receiving $38M. The letter from Australia’s PFA argued: “For the group stage alone, Socceroos players have shared $2.4M for the FIFA World Cup Russia 2018, while the Matildas will share only $0.225M, less than 10 percent. “If the Matildas are to become World Champions, they will receive only 50 percent of what the Socceroos received for qualifying for Russia.” U.S. women, the world’s most successful squad and winners of three of the seven Women’s World Cups, also called for an increase in prize money. “The USWNT Players Association is thankful for the women and men who tirelessly work on a daily basis to advance women’s football within institutions like FIFA and U.S. Soccer, as well as within fellow unions like FIFPro and its members,” it said in a statement. “The common objective of all these institutions - both management and labour - is ultimately to grow the game. Substantial investment is required to overcome generations of inequality and discrimination in the women’s game, to make football the world’s preeminent sport for women and girls. “We are committed to having continuous dialogue around how FIFA and U.S. Soccer can fulfil their respective statutory obligations of gender equality, including the prize money for the 2019 World Cup, which is an area we feel immediate and impactful investment can be made.” Infantino said that FIFA was committed to consistently increasing investment and cited the launch of a new strategy for women’s football earlier this month which included plans to strengthen the game in all 211 member associations. “Clearly... we want to invest more and earmark more for women’s football and not only for the best 24 teams in the world who play the World Cup, for which we have increased significantly the allocations and prize moneys, but we have a duty to do so all over the world,” he said. “Also in these regulations there are specific requirements for all associations in the world that in order to receive the necessary grants they have to organise women’s competitions, otherwise they don’t receive these grants.”