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Friday November 30, 2018
Kaieteur News
Women will be eventually Ivan Madray/BCB 100 Ball Mem. 1st incorporated into CPL, says Russell Div. Tournament Starts on Sunday
Female cricketers St John’s, Antigua, CMC – Chief Operations Officer of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) Pete Russell says he expects that women will eventually be integrated into the “Biggest Party in Sport”. His comments have come following a recent plea by West Indies’ batsman Britney Cooper at the conclusion of the Women’s Twenty20 World Cup, for the CPL to reject cricket as being just a “gentleman’s game” and incorporate women into the annual tournament. The West Indies, who were defending champions, crashed out at the semi-final stage to eventual winners Australia. The regional side was wildly inconsistent with the bat throughout the tournament and claimed they were at a disadvantage to their Australian, English and Indian counterparts who play much more cricket year-
round. Russell told the Newsday that the CPL had taken notice of the successful staging of the Women’s World T20 in the Caribbean which attracted large crowds at Providence Stadium (Guyana), Darren Sammy Cricket Ground (St Lucia) and Sir Vivian Richards Stadium (Antigua). He said women’s cricket being part of CPL had been discussed before and said it would happen eventually. “We have already discussed the feasibility of a women’s tournament with Cricket West Indies (CWI) or a women’s exhibition match, after the 2017 tournament, and have been discussing how we can make it work since then. ”Any cricket tournament is a huge logistical challenge to arrange and there are a lot of questions that would need to be answered before we could commit to going ahead.
But it is something that we are keen to have as part of the CPL programme, it is not question of ‘if’ it is a question of ‘when’,” Russell declared. ”Yes, we think this is a feasible option. We have seen with the Women’s Big Bash in Australia, the Super League in England and in the recently completed ICC Women’s World T20 that the women’s game is on the rise and needs to be taken very seriously. The quality of the women’s game has risen massively over the last few years and the Windies women’s team have been at the forefront of this. Having won the 2016 tournament and made the semi-final in this year’s event, the talent is clearly there for a fantastic women’s tournament in the region, but all decisions in this regard have to be discussed and agreed with our partners, CWI.”
BCB President Hilbert Foster receives sponsorship from Chandradat Chintamani. Another historic competition has been unveiled by the Berbice Cricket Board (BCB), it’s a 100-ball memorial knockout tournament for First Division teams. The BCB on Tuesday last joined hands with the family of the late John Madray to bring off the t o u r n a m e n t ; M a d r a y, a product of Port Mourant CC was the third Berbician to play Test Cricket. Madray had followed the footsteps of John Trim and Rohan Kanhai, also from Port Mourant Cricket Club to play Test cricket at the time. The cost of sponsorship is to the tune of
T&T, Brazil and Suriname among eight teams to battle for $1.2M - International Fustal Festival launched by GFF By Sean Devers The Guyana Football Federation (GFF) yesterday at their Headquarters launched the inaugural eight-team International Fustal Football Festival 2018 which was attended by GFF, representatives, Coordinator of the Event Aubrey ‘Shanghai’ Major, ExxonMobil’s Nicolas Haywood, Minister of Social Cohesion with responsibility for Sports Dr George Norton and members of the Media. Coordinated by the Kashif and Shanghai Organisation, the ExxonMobil-sponsored International Futsal Festival
will be staged at two venues from December 27-30. The Fustal Festival will see participation from Trinidad and Tobago’s Morvant Caledonia United, a Soa Paulo selection from Brazil and ZV All-Stars of Suriname which is expected to include some guest players to strengthen their club side. East Coast All-Stars, Linden All-Stars, Georgetown All-Stars and West Demerara All-Stars are the four local Association teams which will match skills with a Guyana team. Although the Festival is slated to be contested at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH) and National Park Tarmac, GFF’s Director
of Competitions Ian Alves disclosed that the GFF has not yet confirmed if CASH will available as a venue. The NSC has moved Futsal to the National Gymnasium since the newly laid ‘mat’ on the floor of CASH being used for Hockey would be damaged by Footballers. When pressed for clarification on the availability of the venue, Dr Norton said he could not make a comment on that issue without knowing all the facts since the NSC is responsible for Government owned Sports Facilities. The Sports Minister expressed delight at being in the company of those who had a passion for the sport and foot-
ball ran in their blood. “I am glad that football is spread all across Guyana but a bit disappointed that more football is not organised in the hinterland where many indigenous people are good at football,” added Dr Norton. GFF President Wayne Forde informed that this is one of two key year-end events that should happen every year. The other is the Super-16 which was launched a week ago and scheduled to commence on December 14. ExxonMobil is the title sponsor with Stag Beer and I-Cool Water also sponsoring the event where the third (Continued on page 34)
$330,000 and is being taken care of by the Madray and Chintamani families; action will get underway on Sunday, weather permitting with some 9 clubs p a r t i c i p a t i n g , n a m e l y, West Berbice, Blairmont Community Centre, Police, Tucber Park, Young Wa r r i o r s , R o s e H a l l Canje, Albion Community Centre, Rose Hall Town Gizmos & Gadgets and Port Mourant. Skeldon CC has been suspended from Berbice cricket for the rest of the year while teams in the Upper Corentyne are focusing on completing the New Building Society 40overs tournament. BCB President Hilbert Foster hailed the tournament as another red letter day in the development of the sport. Foster proudly stated that the rest of Guyana collectively does not play the amount that Berbice has organised in 2018. The tournament, Foster stated is extra special as it would be honouring one of Berbice’ legends and one of the county’s best role models, who died over a decade ago. Madray, is one of the seven Test players produced by the Port Mourant Cricket Club and after retirement, migrated to England where he became a successful businessman and was heavily involved in Charity work. The tournament would involve both teams facing
14 six-ball overs and 2 eight-ball overs. The Power Play shall be six overs where a maximum of two fielders would be allowed out of the 30 yards circle. M r. Chandradat Chintamani, a nephew of Madray, stated that his uncle was a positive role model and hero to his entire family. Chintamani, who hails from the No. 55 Village in the Upper Corentyne is the Senior Vice President of Larparkan. He expressed delight at being able to pay respect to his Uncle and to be associated with Berbice cricket which over the last few months have been setting high standards. He also stated that he was confident that the tournament would be a great success and it was his intention to make it an annual event if everything goes to plan. Foster and Chintamani had an extensive discussion on plans for the development of the sport of which the BCB President expressed confidence that the talks would bear fruits early in 2019 to benefit over 80 clubs and numerous young players. Special thanks were expressed to the Madray and Chintamani families for the sponsorship. Ivan Madray was born on the 2nd July, 1934, and died on the 23rd April, 2009. He made his Test Debut for the West Indies on the 5th February, 1958, playing two Test Matches.