Big plans for swimming this year See story on page 31
EBSC congratulates its GCB 2016 awardees THE Enterprise Busta Sports Club (EBSC) has extended congratulations to two of its members, who excelled at the Guyana Cricket Board’s (GCB) annual awards ceremony on Thursday evening last at the Umana Yana. National youth cricketer Bhaskar Yadram was named Junior Cricketer-ofthe-Year and received the Roy Fredericks Trophy. The 17-year-old also copped awards for Most Valuable Player in the Regional Under-19; Most Runs in the Regional Under-19; and Most Wickets in the Regional Under-17 an accolade he shared with Kevin Sinclair. During 2016, Yadram was outstanding for Guyana in Regional youth cricket and continued
Awardees Bhaskar Yadram (third left) and Chanderpaul Singh (second right) pose with members of the EBSC. that form at the senior level, hitting 547 runs for the East Coast Demerara franchise in the inaugural Jaguars Franchise League
Three-day tournament. His aggregate was the fifth most in the competition, and he created history along the way, becoming the
India confirm Kohli as limited-overs captain
(REUTERS) - Virat Kohli has taken over from Mahendra Singh Dhoni as India’s limited-overs captain, becoming his country’s skipper in all three formats of the game, the Indian cricket board (BCCI) said yesterday. Dhoni has been named as wicketkeeper in the squads for three one-dayers and three Twenty20 Internationals against England beginning on January 15. The 35-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman relinquished the limited-overs captaincy on Wednesday after nine trophy-laden years, which included two World Cups and a Champions Trophy. Having taken over the Test captaincy from Dhoni in late 2014 and led the team to the top of the ICC rankings, the 28-year-old Kohli was a
Virat Kohli becomes India’s skipper in all three formats of the game. natural choice to skipper the limited-overs squads. “Virat was on Skype with us ... and we chose the best possible squad (for the England series),” chief selector MSK Prasad told
reporters. Kohli took to social media to join the outpouring of tributes to Dhoni’s captaincy. “Thanks for always being the leader a youngster wants to have around him. You’ll always be my captain @msdhoni Bhai (brother),” Kohli tweeted. India’s limited-overs stalwart Yuvraj Singh returned to both the one-day and Twenty20 squads after his impressive form in domestic cricket. Uncapped wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant was named in the Twenty20 squad which also includes 37-year-old fast bowler Ashish Nehra. India ODI squad: Virat Kohli (captain), Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wicketkeeper), Lokesh Rahul, Shikhar Turn to page 27
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first and only player to date to score two centuries (118 and 121 against Essequibo) in the same match. Yadram also collected medals for
being part of the Guyana Under-17 and Under-19 teams. He was subsequently drafted into Cricket Guy
Inc. Academy set-up and was one of two Guyanese in the West Indies Under-19 training camp in Grenada last week. The other EBSC member whose efforts were recognised in 2016 was Chanderpaul Singh, who is the head curator at the club. He received a plaque for his outstanding contribution to the sport as a curator. The club, in a statement last Saturday, expressed how elated the members and executives were of the duo’s achievements. The EBSC said it is indeed proud to have provided an avenue for both Yadram and Singh to improve on their skills. The club wished both awardees continued success in 2017, and advised them to never give up on their dreams to be the best at what they do.
Saintfiet hopeful but admits T&T fate out of their hands
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) - Head coach Tom Saintfiet has held out hope of Trinidad and Tobago still winning the Caribbean Football Union qualifying series, despite their opening loss to Suriname on Wednesday. The hosts went down 2-1 to the Surinamese at the Ato Boldon Stadium and now need to beat Haiti in their final game tomorrow, and hope Haiti beat Suriname on Friday, in order to have any chance of topping the standings. “Nothing is over yet. We need to hope that Haiti win on Friday … against Suriname and then it’s up to us to beat Haiti in 90 minutes with a better score than we lost to Suriname, then we can still qualify,” the Belgian said. “But it’s naturally very sour at the moment to imagine that it’s not in our
T&T head coach Tom Saintfiet hopeful his side can still come out on top. own hands.” T&T started the encounter positively but failed to capitalise on a few good shots on goal, as the game went to the half scoreless. However, Suriname took the lead in the 76th minute through Guno
Kwasie and even though T&T equalised five minutes later through a brilliant Tyrone Charles free kick, the visitors netted again in added extra time courtesy of a wonderful Ivanildo Rozenblad long range volley. Saintfiet, in only his third game in charge of T&T, lamented the fact T&T had not made more of their firsthalf dominance. “In the first 70 minutes, we didn’t make the opening goal. I think the public was very positive, there was a good atmosphere, everyone could feel we were hunting for that goal,” he pointed out. “We had a lot of corners, a lot of almost-goals. If we had scored the opening goal I’m sure we would have won the match.” Saintfiet said, having seen Suriname playing before Turn to page 27 SATURDAY JANUARY 7, 2017