monday, june 3, 2013
guyanatimesGY.com
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On-field performance critical – WICB president B
RIDGETOWN, Barbados – West Indies Cricket Board president Dave Cameron believes the success or failure of his tenure will be based on the regional side’s results on the pitch. The Jamaican businessman, who beat incumbent Julian Hunte for the top post back in March, will travel to England shortly to watch West Indies contest the ICC Champions Trophy. For Cameron, the June 6-23 tournament will be the first for the team under his presidency and he said their performances would ultimately be a reflection of his leadership. “We want the players to understand this is a partnership and that is how I am treating the players [and] the players association,” Cameron told CMC Sports in an exclusive interview. “They (players) are our most valuable assets. Without them the organisation is nothing and anything that I am able to achieve in my presidency will be as a result of what we were able to achieve on the field.” He stressed: “Let’s just understand that. If we don’t win, if we’re not more consistent on the field then they’re going to say the
The West Indies team at a training session
president has failed so that’s very clear to me. “I have to have a partnership with them, that my looking good is as a result of what they do at the end of the day, so I need to understand what are the things that I need to do better to get them to perform better.” West Indies will be looking to add the ICC
Champions Trophy to their Twenty20 World Cup title captured last October when they beat hosts Sri Lanka in the final of that tournament. They have been installed in a tough Group B labelled as the “group of death”, where they will play alongside the likes of reigning World Cup champions India, South Africa and Pakistan.
Despite the nature of the challenge, Cameron believes the Windies have the strength and quality players capable of winning the tournament. “Hopefully they will allow me to hoist the trophy in England because I will be there. But I am not even bothering to go to the preliminary games be-
cause I don’t need to go to those ones so I’ll be there hoisting the trophy [at the end],” Cameron quipped. “I think we stand a very good chance. We have the calibre players but it is how do we get everybody to work together and with that said, I think I have given as much support – the Board has giv-
en enough support – to the management team, to the structure to allow them to win.” Since taking over the helm of West Indies cricket in March, Cameron said he had be reviewing the various components of the regional game and the quality of the Windies team management had stood out. He said one of his main aims was to continue to improve the structure so that players continued to excel. “I am very impressed by how the team management unit operates, all of the processes and how they go about their things,” he explained. “Some of my concerns remain how we deal with our retained players so those are some of the things I am trying to ensure now, that once our players are engaged by the West Indies Cricket Board or any territorial board for that matter, that we have resources in place to ensure that they go to work, they have all the resources and that there is management and supervision.” Cameron met with the squad during their camp at the 3Ws Oval last week, before they left for the United Kingdom. (WICB)
GCC and Hikers play to exciting draw
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CC and Hikers Cadets played to a 2-2 draw in the Kellogg’s men’s first division competition of the Bryden’s Super Classic Indoor Hockey Championships on Saturday. After a defensive blunder from GCC, the Cadets’ Travon Younge scored the opening goal in just the second minute of play. The game maintained a high tempo for the balance of the first half with neither team being able to trouble the score sheet. However, early in second half GCC drew level with a strike from Leonard George off a penalty corner. Leading Cadets and tournament scorer, Aroydy Branford, put his unbeaten team ahead once more but GCC’s Orland Semple answered with a field goal a minute later to keep the tension in the match and both teams on edge before the final whistle. On the other hand, a depleted Old Fort, clearly missing the services of captain Chris Low-Koan and injured midfielder Jason DeSantos, were punished by the superb play of the Hikers Generals in the other Kellogg’s match
Ashley DeGroot
Randy Hope
Sonia Jardine
Aroydy Branford
of the evening. The Generals drowned their opposition 9-0 with goals coming through a hat-trick from Randy Hope, a double from Joel Hunte and one each from Colonel Heywood, Shane Samuels, Robert France and Devin Munroe. Meanwhile, the Hikers Divas survived an early scare from the GCC Tigers in the Tetley Tea women’s competition. Ashley DeGroot put the Tigers ahead in the first half. Janella Munroe managed the first of her two goals of the match three minutes into the second half. Kenisha Wills made good of a Maria Munroe cross five
minutes later to tap in the second for the Hikers, giving them a 2-1 lead; Munroe returned to finish off a swift counter-attack to extend the Hikers lead to 3-1. The Tigers, true to their name, clawed back and piled the pressure on the Divas in the closing minutes. Multiple penalty corners finally gave the Tigers a breakthrough with Kerensa Fernandes deflecting her shot into the goal in the penultimate minute. Time would run out on the Tigers however and the Divas celebrated a 3-2 victory. Earlier in the evening, Spice chalked up another easy victory in the la-
dies’ competition by scoring seven unanswered goals against Revelation. Captain Sonia Jardine poured in a helmet-trick while Shebiki Baptiste scored a double and Samantha Fernandes, one. The Mr Toppers second division provided another hugely competitive match as pool leaders Ol Skool and Hikers clashed for the first time in the competition. Aroydy Branford netted three goals for the Hikers and Jamarj Assanah scored another before Ol Skool could even manage to get on the score sheet. Ol Skool could only manage one goal before half-time through Philip Fernandes and were
left facing the insurmountable task of a 5-1 deficit at the break. While the second half saw an additional double from Branford, taking his match tally to an impressive six goals, the veteran side, Ol Skool, almost pulled off a comeback. Fernandes netted two more goals in the second half while teammate Dexter Wyles added two more and Damon Woodroffe converted a single off a penalty stroke. Despite Ol Skool’s relentless effort, the youthful Hikers managed to come out victorious with a 7-6 victory. Saints put in a spirited performance against GCC in the second division
competition with a close 3-2 finish in favour of the Bourda boys. Striker Hilton Chester scored first to put Saints ahead early in the second half and would add another to his name seven minutes later. GCC’s Michael Xavier’s double and Daniel Hooper’s single however managed to save them the 3-2 victory. The injury prone All Greys had to forfeit their final match against Old Fort leaving them with a 3-0 walk-over in the second division competition. Based on the pool results, the Kellogg’s first division competition sees Old Fort facing the Hikers Cadets in the first semi-final while GCC and the Hikers Generals do battle in the other. The Tetley Tea ladies semi-finals see Spice challenging Revelation while the GCC Tigers tackle the Hikers Divas in the other. The Mr Toppers second division competition goes straight to a final with a repeat of the Ol Skool and Hikers battle of Saturday evening. Matches continued on Sunday at the National Gymnasium from 14:30h while the three finals began at 18:00h.