Guyana Times - Sunday, October 2, 2022

Father rushing son to hospital kills pedestrian on WCD road

of Guyana’s

– Edghill

10-year-old killed by speeding drunk driver

A10-year-old school girl lost her life on Friday night after she was struck down by a drunk driver, who was speeding in Lethem.

The incident occurred at about 16:40h at Third Street Lethem, Central Rupununi, and claimed the life of Ruth Glasgow.

The schoolgirl was struck down by motor car PLL 2547, which was driv en by a 23-year-old man, also of Tabatinga.

along the centre of Third Street, Lethem, at a fast rate of speed negotiating a left turn. At the time, the student, who took part in the school’s sports that was held at the Tabatinga Sports Complex Ground, exited the ground with her mother and then braced on her pedal cycle on the western parapet of the road, eating her food.

The driver of the car said he lost control of his vehicle and collided with the schoolgirl and her cy cle.

The child and her cy cle were flung some dis tance further north on the road, causing her to sus tain injuries to her head and body.

Glasgow was picked up in an unconscious con dition by public-spirited citizens and taken to the Lethem Regional Hospital, where she was treated and

immediately referred to Boa Vista Brazil via ambu lance to seek further medi cal attention.

At 22:40h on Friday, Glasgow succumbed to her injuries while undergoing emergency medical treat ment in Boa Vista, Brazil.

Meanwhile, at the scene, two breathalyser tests were conducted on the driver and the read ings came back .90 BAC and .85 BAC, respectively.

A notice of intended prosecution was served on the 23-year-old driver.

Police on Saturday said that the driver was ini tially charged on Friday for dangerous driving and driving under the influence of alcohol. However, this was before the 10-year-old girl died. A new charge of causing death by danger ous driving is expected to be laid against the driver. (G9)

Glasgow, a student of Arapaima Primary School, was standing on the road, leaning on her bicycle and munching on some food when she was struck down by the speeding vehicle. Investigations reveal that motor car PLL 2547 was proceeding north

The car that was involved in the accident

BRIDGE OPENINGS

The Demerara Harbour Bridge

Sunday, Oct 2 – 22:00 – 23:30h and Monday, Oct 3 – 11:00 – 12:30h.

The Berbice Bridge will

Sunday, Oct 2 – 08:25h – 09:55h and Monday, Oct 3 – 09:50h – 11:20h.

FERRY SCHEDULE

Parika and Supenaam departure times –05:00h, 10:00h-12:00h, 16:00h, 18:30h daily

WEATHER TODAY

There will be thundery showers and sunshine during the day. Expect partly cloudy skies at night. Temperatures should range between 21 degrees Celsius and 31 degrees Celsius.

Winds: East South-Easterly to North NorthEasterly between 1.78 metres and 5.36 metres.

High Tide: 08:54h and 21:11h reaching maximum heights of 2.26 metres and 2.31 metres.

Low Tide: 14:40h reaching a minimum height of 1.04 metre.

Govt announces major reduction of gasoline, diesel prices at GuyOil

...20% gasoline decrease, 15% diesel reduction …to take effect from today

Government has an nounced a major re duction in gasoline prices at the pumps, with the State-owned Guyana Oil Company Limited (GuyOil) to slash its gasoline prices by as much as 20 per cent.

In the announcement on Saturday, Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh noted that prices at the pump charged by GuyOil will be reduced, from $269 per litre to $215 per litre.

Additionally, diesel pric es will be reduced by 15 per cent from $265 per li tre to $225 per litre. These changes, according to the Minister, are expected to start taking effect as early as today, October 2, 2022.

world market.

“Since resuming office in August 2020, the PPP/C Government has imple mented a suite of measures

Government since assum ing office,” the Minister said in the statement.

GuyOil, as the Stateowned company, usual

Demerara (EBD) corridor had been slow to follow suit with lowering their prices.

Natural Resources Minister Vickram Bharrat had explained to this publi cation that regulatory agen cies like the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA) and the Office of the Prime Minister are responsible for ensuring gas stations comply with any re quirement to decrease their prices.

Dr Singh explained that during the first half of 2022, global oil prices surged more than 50 per cent, in creasing from US$77 per barrel at the end December 2021 to US$120 in June of this year. In fact, oil prices rose as high as US$137 per barrel primarily as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“The impact of the dra matic increases in oil prices were significant and given the interconnected nature of the global economy, translated into higher cost of landing fuel in Guyana. In order to mitigate the im pact of rising global fuel prices on domestic consum ers and the productive sec tors to which fuel is a key input, the Government low ered the Excise Tax rate on both gasoline and die sel from 10 per cent to 0 per cent in March of this year.”

“It would be recalled that, previously, during the Budget 2022 presentation, the Government lowered the Excise Tax on both gas oline and diesel from 20 per cent to 10 per cent so as to minimise the impact of ris ing global oil prices,” the Minister further explained.

Over a period of time, the Government has been progressively lowering the Excise Tax rate on both gas oline and diesel, from 50 per cent to 35 per cent in February 2021, and from 35 per cent to 20 per cent in October 2021. This is in keeping with Government policy to adjust the taxes on fuel, to mitigate the impact of rising fuel prices on the

to ease cost of living pres sures and to improve dis posable incomes, in an on going effort to address these issues head-on and to mitigate the effects of ris ing prices globally on all Guyanese citizens. The re duction in Excise Taxes is one such measure with in the wide menu of mea sures implemented by

ly has a significant influ ence on the setting of prices across gas stations, even those privately owned as they try to keep their prices competitive. But in March of this year when Government had announced the remov al of Excise Tax on fuel, several privately owned gas stations in Georgetown and along the East Bank of

Bharrat had gone on to make a personal appeal to business owners to en sure their prices are adjust ed now that they no lon ger have to pay this Excise Tax on fuel. According to the Natural Resources Minister, the removal of Excise Tax on fuel is expect ed to benefit the people of Guyana, as the Government is aware of the challeng es Guyanese are facing as a result of the rising cost of living on the international scene.

State-owned GuyOil

Views

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Exporting services

Thequest for growth outside the oil sector, to help avoid the Dutch Disease, is thankfully one of the very few things on which the Government and Opposition are in agreement. Very sadly, however, the Opposition has been emphasising primarily the redistributive function thrust of governmental policies – with an obvious populist eye on the electorate. But while the Government’s assistance programmes to the populace, especially the neediest sections, are positive, it is clear that they see these as ultimately a zero-sum activity: meaning that they would be redistributing only a pie of fixed size, and not answering the question “How do we increase the size of the pie?”

While budgets precipitate debates on development but are technically focused on a single year, the PPP Government has signalled, through the implementation of its manifesto blueprint, a quest for longer-term development. This perspective is illustrated by its stress on infrastructure –roads, bridges, new agricultural lands etc, and the gas-toshore project, which are the precursors to a more diversified productive economy. However, we suggest that the Government take another look at an area it had opened up a decade ago: Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D).

At that time, the concerns were about the costs associated with the initiative (fibre optic cable, OLPF etc) and its domestic impact (improving e-governance, competing with private sector providers etc). But its potential to alter the structural foundations of our economy by opening up the export of services was neglected. Some still seem stuck in nineteenth century economic dogma that saw “development” as a transition from agricultural to industrial production, with manufacturing being the prime ‘engine of growth’. Only physical products are suitable for export, and services are confined only to the domestic market, in this view.

But towards the end of the 20th century, developments in ICT effectuated a revolution in delivering services across borders. As a platform for growth and development, the phenomenon was encapsulated as the “3Ts” - technology, transportability, and tradability. “Outsourcing” of services became a catchword as billions of dollars flowed from the developed countries into the ICT-savvy developing nations. Trade in services is becoming increasingly more viable, with many businesses now dividing their operations across the world.

The rapid growth of China and India, which have been driven along two different political ideologies, has rekindled the debate on the drivers of growth and development. China’s growth is led by traditional manufacturing, while India’s growth focuses heavily on services – representing the two different paths towards rapid development. And India has not been alone in exploiting the new opportunity: In the last decade, services have grown as a share of the world trade, accounting in 2020 for 22.1%, and service exports in developing countries have skyrocketed.

It is very unlikely that we can match the economies of scale to compete with behemoths like China in industrial exports, but with our comparative advantage of English as our first language and a populace that still has a collective drive for education, we can certainly carve out a niche in the ICT service exports. These exports have primarily been in such areas as information technology, business-related transcribing medical records, data services, call centres, education, entertainment production services, etc.

These services differ significantly from the traditional services which demand face-to-face interaction, but we will not be in a position to exploit this new driver of growth unless we have both the human and infrastructural resources in place to be capable of offering the service. Deregulation of the communications sector and the offering of 20,000 scholarships by the PPP Government address those concerns. The World Bank studies have shown that exports’ “quality” in services is positively associated with growth performance; even 1% involvement generated significant growth. For countries like ours, where businesses are stuck in a “trader mentality”, ICT-based exports would also ensure that traditional service activities gain in productivity from the 3Ts. Additionally, a host of new service activities would emerge as a result of unbundling and technological innovation.

The Opposition should push ICT, not just handouts.

A new series immerses us in Russia’s 90s trauma – and the human cost of economic shock

By Marina Hyde

One of the many glitter ingly clever quotes cir culated in the wake of Hilary Mantel’s death last week was something she said about history. The longer version is wonderful (what did she ever say that wasn’t?), but we’ll clip this bit: “Facts are not truth, though they are part of it … And history is not the past – it is the method we have evolved of organising our ignorance of the past. It’s the record of what’s left on the record.” Yet using these fragments – “a few stones, scraps of writing, scraps of cloth” – Mantel could trans port you so completely that you felt you were breathing the air of another century, feeling the emotions of other people, mov ing through other times.

This has an intense value. And yet, there is a certain type of historian who concerns them self – or himself, let’s face it –very little with emotion, even though that is all anyone or dinary who was forced to live through events was feeling at the time. Anger, shock, hope, bewilderment, laughter, ex haustion, betrayal – these are the trifling human offcuts of some loftier story, largely un mentionable byproducts of the grand machinations of greater men than them.

I’m glad this isn’t an afflic tion suffered by the documenta ry maker Adam Curtis, perhaps the BBC’s last great maver ick, whose landmark series on Russia between 1985 and 1999 arrives on iPlayer in two weeks. Last year, Curtis was handed a treasure trove: every piece of raw footage shot by the BBC in Russia since the 1960s. Tens of thousands of hours, only the tiniest fraction of which had ever made it to air. Out of this hoard and other material lying in the BBC archive, he has cre ated seven brilliant and deep ly empathetic films that cover what happened to Russia be tween 1985 and 1999 (the year

Vladimir Putin took power). It’s called TraumaZone: What It Felt Like to Live Through the Collapse of Communism and Democracy.

The films bring that world right up against your eyeballs, and prove themselves essen tial to our understanding of the Russia we have now, of the Russia from which Putin emerged, and of the staggering human cost of it all. And, per haps, of what it feels like on the ground when ideologues with a plan decide to jolt the people to wards a new utopia. Anyway, more on the UK’s week in eco nomic shock therapy in a min ute.

We already know the his torical facts of the Russia story: the hideous iniquities of com munism, its tumultuous col lapse, the grotesque corruption and betrayal that followed, the vast scale – both ideological and geographical – of the var ious cataclysms. These films take us from the Kremlin to the Siberian mining villages, from the Chechen frontline to peo ple’s apartments, immersing us in every layer of Russian soci ety. I showed Curtis the Mantel quote this week and he loved it. “I found this extraordinary material – tens of thousands of fragments of experience,” he explained. “What I’m doing is taking these fragments and I’m trying to create a world for you to get lost in, a sense of what it was like to live through that world. At the end of it, I hope you think and feel different ly about what Russians went through – and understand how Putin could emerge from that strange cataclysm.”

This I can definitely con firm. I watched the films in early summer, yet seeing last weekend’s mostly female pro test against Putin’s Ukraine mobilisation in Moscow, I was immediately transported back to Curtis’s agonising footage of the mothers whose sons are con scripted into the Chechen war. The women in TraumaZone are

what will stay longest with me – the struggling babushkas, the sex workers in Moscow’s Cosmos hotel, the state tooth brush factory employees, the reformatory teens, the idealistic first Avon ladies, the extraordi narily charismatic young girl who begs at car windows in the Moscow traffic … the women break your heart.

TraumaZone is a definite departure from Curtis’s previ ous style. There is no “Adam Curtis voiceover”, no music un less it’s part of the original foot age itself, no provocative cen tral thesis. He feels the hot-take industry has swallowed up ev erything since 2016 – “and I’m one of the worst offenders!” –and what the series offers in stead is much more compelling and unusual. You can hear the flies buzzing on the steppes. You are in the middle of riots brutally suppressed by state po lice. You are watching as gang sters loot cars straight off the production lines. You are in the queue to be told there are still no potatoes in all of Moscow. It’s difficult not to conclude that the hardline free marketeers had about as much empathy for the ordinary people as the Marxist intellectuals.

Which I accept might be starting to sound familiar closer to home. Don’t worry, this isn’t some glib bollocks about how we’re all the same underneath. Russians are not similar to us, because they have been through a totally different experience. In the 90s, they had the acceler ated and frequently catastroph ic collapse of not one but two of the dominant ideologies of the 20th century. We had Britpop.

Not that that stops some pointed jokes. A Russian jour nalist who recently fled Putin’s regime reflected sardonical ly to Curtis: “You in Britain are Moscow in about 1988. Everyone knows the system isn’t working. Everyone knows that the managers are com pletely looting it. They know that you know that they know,

but no one has any concept of a possible alternative. The only difference is you’ve already tried democracy. You’ve got nothing else left.”

Ouch. It has certainly felt like a rather idiosyncratic form of democracy this week, watch ing a government without a mandate pursue radical eco nomic shock policies on the ba sis of pure dogma, no matter the forecast human fallout. Over the course of TraumaZone we get to know Yegor Gaidar, the ultra-free marketeer architect of the shock therapy designed to radically remake Russia’s economy, who became despised by the Russians who bore the brunt of his malfunctioning ide als even as the oligarchs used them as cover to steal an entire country. There is an arresting closeup of Gaidar’s face at the funeral of Galina Starovoitova, the democratic reformer assas sinated in her apartment build ing in 1998. What is his expres sion? Is it a flicker of an epic personal reckoning?

I kept wondering if I saw a flash of it on Kwasi Kwarteng’s face this week, when the cam eras followed the chancellor on some no-comment walk out of the Treasury as the finan cial crisis he caused was play ing out in real time. Or wheth er we’ll see it when Kwarteng or Liz Truss is forced to encounter an ordinary victim who experi ences their ideology as a repos sessed house or hungry child, rather than something that sounds good in a pamphlet.

But perhaps these are the fleeting emotions we wish ideo logues to feel, and not the ones they do. The one thing we can say with a general election pos sibly more than two years away is that no one but a tiny selec torate of 81,000 voted for this radical experiment. Is that de mocracy? Is that what keeps people believing in politics? Or are we entering a trauma zone of our own? (The Guardian)

(Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist)

President Dr Irfaan Ali chatting with former Prime Minister of Jamaica, PJ Patterson, at the final match of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) tourney in Guyana on Friday evening. Patterson is the Chairman of the Caribbean Tournament Committee of CPL (Office of the President photo)

Dear Editor,

There is a good chance most of you have never hear of Ludwig Wittgenstein. You can’t be blamed for that, because even if you were an avid reader of philo sophical texts, Wittgenstein would pose a challenge be cause of the level of ab straction in his works. Allow me to introduce the concept of language games developed by Wittgenstein in his Philosophical Investigations.

Language games have two important aspects rel evant to our discussion.

First, words have mean ing only in the context of their usage, we all know that. But the second aspect, when combined with the first, is what really mat ters. That second aspect concerns the intended out come the speaker/writer wants. This is especially so in terms of political and cul tural outcomes.

I submit to you that to understand the relentless attacks by Opposition me dia in Guyana, you have to understand the language games they play. The ed itorial in Kaieteur News (October 1, 2022) titled “Protests in Iran – Guyana beware” is a case in point. The editorial attempts to use the protests in Iran to make claims about Guyana based on something it calls “brazen corruption”.

The logic of the edito rial is that a handful of un accountable clerics in Iran practise “brazen corrup tion”, and it is this, rather than the hijab, that is the source of the protests.

The editorial then con tinues to assert, and only by assertion, claims that Guyana has the same mala dy, and like Iran, there may be big protests here as well.

Let us be clear about

a few things. Iran and Guyana have practical ly nothing in common, oth er than both countries had democratically elected ad ministrations overthrown by foreign interests: Iran in 1954, and Guyana in 1964. Other than that, the differ ences are stark. Most im portantly, Guyana has had democratically elected gov ernments since October 1992, and this despite mas sive attempts by the APNUAFC at electoral fraud at the national and regional elections of 2020.

Guyana is also fun damentally different from Iran in that it is a secular state firmly grounded in the Western tradition of re ligious freedoms, individual rights, and an open market economy. That bastion of Westernism, the IMF, con firmed these traits about Guyana in its most recent annual report.

One of the character istics of language games is that subjective or political ly motivated positions are offered by operatives as the outcomes of careful deliber ation. Here is a quote from the KN editorial that falls in this category: “We at this paper are not too optimistic that corruption in Guyana will abate anytime soon. It is now too widespread and deep-seated.” What is the basis for this claim?

Well, the basis is what Wittgenstein called “fam ily resemblance”, mean ing for KN in this case that Guyana resembles Iran. Mere resemblance, there fore, can function as equiv alence.

The logic of this propa gandistic language game is as follows: (1) take an issue (protests in Iran) that is al ready getting worldwide at tention; (2) make the claim that Guyana is similar to

Should budding Prosecutors be worried?

Dear Editor, I read in the news that a Magistrate had ordered the detention of a Prosecutor for failing to produce a video re cording in a case before her. According to the report in the newspapers, she did so because he committed “con tempt”.

Well, as an aspiring Prosecutor who hopes to one day appear for the Police in a Magistrate’s Court, I am wondering whether I should continue my studies in this regard, because Mr Nigel Hughes, a 34-year veteran of the legal profession, did not object to her doing so.

My training has nev

er advised me that I run such a risk, and I am as sured that in appearing in a Magistrate’s Court, I have to be respectful, and should not insult or threaten the Magistrate during the hear ing of the case, because Section 197 of the Summary Jurisdiction (Offences) Act CAP 8:02 empowers the Magistrate to charge me for such offensive conduct.

Could someone of those legal luminaries please clear the air for budding Prosecutors? Our future de pends on this.

Respectfully, Name withheld

Iran; (3) claim that the re semblance is such that whatever is happening in Iran will happen here.

Wittgenstein also used the concept of rule-follow ing. In simple langue, the meaning of a word or state ment follows a pattern es tablished by the speak er/author. In this case, ‘since’ Iran is corrupt and there are protests, then (if) Guyana resembles Iran, protests would also devel op here.

Do keep in mind that the author/s of the KN ed itorial are not conscious ly following Wittgenstein. They may have never heard of him.

Language games are of maximum utility to the APNU-AFC and the self-de scribed ‘civil society’ groups in Guyana. This is so be cause language games work through manipulation of facts, of evidence, of truth. The Opposition do not want to engage empirical infor mation, because, if they do, they won’t be able to make outrageous claims, such as “…we have politicians de ceiving, concealing, and sliding all over the place when pushed to provide straight, simple answers.”

In fact, deceiving, conceal ing, and sliding constitute the bread and butter of the editorial in question.

Sincerely, Dr Randy Persaud

Dear Editor,

The land-purchase of fer by the current admin istration is competitive, and shows a significant im provement from the past, if the land being purchased is land used for farming. Given the prevailing lo cal market prices and pric ing in other markets, the Government’s offer should not be easily dismissed.

However, recent con cerns expressed in the news have some merit. The val ue of the land should also be based on the net present value of the cash flows. The discounted cash flow mod el is not new, and should be utilised in this case to help set the current market price. The additional im provements that have been mentioned should also be considered in the net pres ent value of the unproduc tive base price of the land.

This appears to be what has been considered in the calculation. For ex ample, the average cost of agricultural land in the US is around US$13,000 per acre at the upper end of the range. This land is not as productive and as versatile as land in the Caribbean, but the infrastructure and surrounding factors make it an attractive price. The Caribbean, on the oth er hand, has a wide price range due to the favourable climate and location. I have seen listed prices ranging from US$5000 per acre to US$155,000 per acre. This makes it difficult to nail down a number.

Another consideration

is that there is a blast/ in cineration zone that also must be considered when determining the amount of land that must be secured for the pipeline. In the US, some land owners receive payment for each foot of pipe going through their land, and in one example, that range has been from US$5 to US$50 per foot.

There are also health hazards and safety risks to consider, which would re strict the use of the land in the surrounding area. These risks increase over time due to the aging of the pipeline and the increas ing need for maintenance. We must never lose sight of the fact that our land is valuable, and we must pro tect it from environmental damage. An alternative to the sale of the land may be a mix of purchase, replace ment and lease. Some land owners have also pushed for a royalty payment based on the value of the product being moved via the pipe line. This is usually above the fair market value of the land, and the argument for this also considers the re sulting unattractiveness of the area due to environmen

tal degradation that comes from having a pipeline.

Pipeline considerationsLanguage games of the Opposition

When considering all of these factors, the bottom line is that the gas pipe line project is a very expen sive and risky undertaking. A safer alternative would be to transport the gas via a sea vessel, which would also increase the flexibility of the gas project, especially if more gas is discovered at another well not close to the current source. In addition, it would give us the capa bility to ship liquified nat ural gas (LNG) to high-de mand markets in Europe and Asia, as is currently be ing done by top LNG export countries such as Qatar, Australia and the US.

The Ministry of Finance should include these con siderations in the finan cial modeling of the proj ect, and select the approach that provides the best longterm net earnings poten tial. The LNG export mar ket is very attractive, and the LNG market growth, which is currently close to 5%, was at 13% before the pandemic.

Best regards, Jamil Changlee

Well, let’s see what we have learned about this rapidly spreading scourge of Heartworm in dogs.

Firstly, we know that it is transmitted by mos quitoes.

Secondly, we know that the adult worms (bundles of them) live in the right heart chambers (and sometimes in some of the big and import ant blood vessels), thus greatly compromising the function of the heart and the transmission from the heart to the organs.

Thirdly, and very im

portantly, we know that this disease (i.e., the de velopment of the visible symptoms) sneaks up on the poor animal, and by the time we begin to see signs of the ailment, the

CANINE HEARTWORM

continued

are seen, that is indic ative of the presence of adult Heartworms in the right heart chambers, and possibly in large blood vessels as they leave the heart.

Q:Is the Heartworm test reliable?

A: You will recall that, in my last column, I said this laboratory di agnosis is not straight forward. Not discern ing the immature stages of the Heartworm in the blood sample does not mean that there is no

stream.

(iv) At the time when the blood sample was tak en, the worms in the heart might not have reached the stage of actual sexual maturity. In other words, they were not quite adult, and therefore could not have mated and produced the microfilariae.

(v) Lastly, and re motely possible, the worms in the heart could be of one sex only (all males or all females). Consequently, they would be unable to mate and re

efficiency of many organ systems (liver, kidney,

lungs, the heart itself) is impaired.

Lastly, we had doc umented that the main symptoms were (i) a soft, deep cough, (ii) lethar gy, (iii) loss of condition (weight loss), and (iv) sometimes a swelling of the limbs (especially the hind legs).

Here are answers to some of the most frequently asked questions on Heartworm disease

Q: How do we keep tabs on the possibility of this disease developing?

A: Simple. We check the blood regularly. Your veterinarian can take a droplet of blood and ex amine it under the microscope. Once the microfilariae (the immature stages of the Heartworm)

Heartworm. This is be cause:

(i) Some of our vet erinarians administer a broad spectrum deworm er which contains exact ly the same drug that kills the microfilariae (immature stages of the Heartworm)! This means that if this very efficient drug kills the microfilari ae and adult Heartworms, then the vet might not find them when the blood sample is observed un der microscope. Yet, some adults could be still ex isting in the heart quite

produce offspring (micro filariae).

Q: What does all of this demand of your veterinarian?

A: Simply put, your veterinarian must make it a part of his or her rou tine examination to check the dog’s blood for this parasite. This means (which can be deduced from the points made above) that the samples must be taken at regular intervals. It also means that if, after several blood checks, there is no sign of the microfilariae, then

happily, thank you.

(ii) The number of mi crofilariae that are cir culating at the time the sample is taken might be very small, and they will not be easily picked up during the microscopic examination of the blood droplet.

(iii) Some dogs actu ally have such a strong immune system that it develops antibodies (de fences) that can kill many of the microfilariae which end up in the blood

and only then should pro phylactic measures (med ication) be administered. If, on the other hand, the presence of a Heartworm burden has been identi fied, therapy must im mediately be introduced, or the dog will die a slow and excruciating death (guaranteed!).

The prevention and cure of Heartworm Disease will be dealt with next week.

Dog’s Heart infested with Heartworms As you can see, the dog with the heartworm infestation is in big trouble

Agriculture Month 2022

Govt confident in its ability to tackle food security challenges – Ali

tem, such as to the adverse impact of climate change, exogenous market shocks and higher input costs.

Government has made inter ventions to support our farm ers and fishers and moderate food inflation,” the President said.

This month is

Agriculture Month 2022 and it was kicked off with President Dr Irfaan Ali proclaiming the Government’s confidence in its ability to tackle any exist ing food security challenges.

Agriculture Month 2022 is being observed under the theme, “Championing Food Security Through Innovation, Investment, and Resilience.”

In his Agriculture Month message, President Ali said that his Government is “un fazed” by the food security challenges.

“It is committed to and confident in its ability to ad dress the vulnerabilities in the country’s agri-food sys

“Agriculture is and will remain a mainstay of our economy. Indeed, the sector already accounts for almost a quarter of the country’s nonoil Gross Domestic Product. One in every eight members of our employed workforce is to be found in the agricultur al, forestry and fisheries sec tors, and agriculture is the principal source of livelihoods for thousands of Guyanese households.”

The President listed oth er elements of the national agricultural strategy, which include boosting critical agri cultural infrastructure such as drainage and irrigation and farm to market roads. It also involves expanding non-traditional agriculture, such as aquaculture and pressing for greater export market access.

Other aspects of the strategy include investing in greater use of technolo gy and incentivising the in volvement of more young

people and women in the sec tor, where their inclusion will enhance the sustainable pro duction of food.

“Guyana’s agricultur al potential is without ques tion. We have the physical and human resources neces sary to drive agricultural de velopment and improve food and nutrition security. But such an enterprise requires cooperation, and cooperation across all sectors.”

“Let us therefore all work together for the development of the local agriculture sector which for generations was one of the bedrocks of our economy,” President Ali fur ther said in his Agriculture

Month message.

Thriving and robust Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha made it clear that a “thriving and robust” agriculture sec tor is critical to Guyana’s fu ture, hence the implementa tion of a national strategy for the sector.

According to the Minister, the various transformative initiatives they have imple mented so far will direct ly benefit farmers, while in creasing the inclusivity in the sector. He assured that the Government will continue to invest in the sector.

“Since assuming of fice in August 2020, our Government has invested ap proximately $95 billion in the sector and we are commit ted to significantly increas ing both public and private

investment in the coming years.”

“Our efforts have been directed by our unwavering commitment to secure an expanded, diversified, mod ernised, resilient and com petitive sector in Guyana and Caricom,” he also said.

Additionally, he said that they are also focused on de-risking the sector, remov ing trade barriers, facilitat ing access to financing and promoting women and youth involvement. And according to Mustapha, a number of stakeholders, including NonGovernmental Organisations (NGOs), are expected to take part.

“The activities planned for agriculture month 2022 will build a greater sense of awareness among stakehold ers about the many projects currently being undertaken

within the agricultural sec tor and the role that every ac tor along the food value chain plays in the development pro cess.”

“We look forward to the usual participation of the private sector, civil society, NGOs, international organ isations and our farmers as we roll out our many activ ities,” Minister Mustapha said.

Guyana’s increased focus on agriculture is testimony to the Government’s efforts to diversify the economy. The 2022 Mid-Year report shows that out of the $32.6 billion budgeted in the agri culture sector, $15.8 billion was spent. This money was spent on a number of things, including constructing major infrastructure, procurement of equipment and capacity building.

and robust” sector critical to country’s future – Agri Minister

President Dr Irfaan Ali

Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha

Wismar man admits to B&E charges, jailed

Taxi driver, fisherman nabbed with ganja

Norwyck

Bayley, a 35-year-old labourer of Half Mile Wismar, Linden, was arrested on Friday and charged with two counts of break and en ter and larceny.

Bayley is accused of committing the acts on two shops. One of the business es is owned and operat ed by Vanessa La Rose, a 52-year-old businesswom an of Phrase One B Wisroc Housing Scheme, Wismar, while the other is owed by Mohanie Campbell, a 53-year-old businesswoman of Central Amelia’s Ward, Linden

The court heard that be tween Thursday and Friday, he broke into the buildings and stole a quantity of items.

On Friday, Bayley ap peared before Magistrate Wanda Fortune at the Linden Magistrate's Court where the two charges were read to him.

Jailed: Norwyck Bayley

He pleaded guilty to both charges and was sentenced to one year’s imprisonment for break and enter and lar ceny committed on Mohanie Campbell, and six months’ imprisonment for break and enter and larceny commit ted on Vanessa La Rose. The sentences are to be served consecutively. (G9)

Police ranks from Division 4C, who were on mobile patrol in Better Hope North, East Coast Demerara (ECD), found marijuana in a bur gundy motor car which they intercepted on Friday.

Reports are that the car bearing registration plate PXX 8447, which was parked on the western side of an access road that runs north to south, was searched by Police after two men were seen sitting in the vehicle but started acting in a suspicious man ner when the Police ap proached.

At the time, the ve hicle was occupied by a

36-year-old taxi driver and a 28-year-old fisherman of Mon Repos, ECD, who was in the passenger seat.

However, an initial search of the vehicle did not produce any illegal items but as ranks examined the car closely, they found a black plastic bag contain ing a transparent bag with leaves, seeds, and stems of cannabis in the gas tank compartment.

Both men were ar rested and taken to the Sparendaam Police Station with the cannabis where it was weighed and amounted to 17 grams. The two sus pects were placed into cus tody pending charges. (G9)

Looking at…

…Agriculture

Well…if this is October, it gotta be “Agriculture Month”. Back in the day – of Cheddi and Burnham – October evoked the “great” 1917 October Russian Revolution that was supposed to usher in the “new Communist World Order”. But not even Lenin’s successor, Putin, has mentioned that titbit as he desperately tries to fend off a Western-backed push to oust him from power!!

The Russian Revolutionaries also had agriculture high on their agenda. In accordance with their communist dogma, they pushed collectivisation of farms which were owned by farmers, called “kulaks”. The kulaks rebelled, and in the process of collectivisation, thousands were killed directlymostly shot on the spot - during the 1930s. About 2 million were forcibly deported to the Far North and Siberia. They were called “enemies of the people,” as well as swine, dogs, cockroaches, scum, vermin, filth, garbage, half-animals, apes!!

Collectivised agriculture was also tried in the 1950s in Communist China, but it failed there also. So, it’s reassuring to your Eyewitness – who’s of strong peasant stock – that the Government hasn’t mentioned “collectivisation” in its announced stress on agriculture!! All the “old dogs” are gone, so no new tricks had to be taught!!

As usual, we have a theme for the month: “Championing food security: through innovation, investment and resilience”. Yup…hunger’s now a “security” issue!! So, now the farmer can see himself on par with those brave soldiers defending us from those nasty Venezuelans and Surinamese who’re lurking to seize chunks of our motherland!! But seriously folks, the war in Ukraine plus the dramatic changes in weather patterns - brought on by climate change - should’ve driven home the fact that food shortages are as much a threat to our lives as bullets. Of course, when you simultaneously face both threats, like in Tigray, you’re up the creek without a paddle.

Anyhow, you’d think that with “agri-business” invented here and the West Indies – what do you think “plantations” were?? – with sugar, we’d be ahead of the game. But funding was always the constraint after independence; we couldn’t very well go back to slavery and indentureship, could we?? So, now that we’ve thrown off that albatross, better late than never!!

Your Eyewitness believes we have a good game plan for our Intermediate Savannahs with new crops like soya, corn and wheat. But he believes it would be better to lease out abandoned sugar lands to workers.

More efficient use for these lands!!

…British racism

This story on the Kwasi Kwarteng, the first Black Chancellor of Britain, is copied without comment from the BBC:

Kwarteng called out the Mirror on Twitter with a screenshot of the story about him which erroneously used a picture of another man outside a Treasury building.

"That isn't me," tweeted the Chancellor.

The story, headlined "Kwasi Kwarteng says he had to do 'something different' after causing budget chaos", instead pictured Bernard Mensah, the President of International for Bank of America.

Mr Mensah had been among representatives of US banks meeting the Chancellor at the Treasury on Wednesday.

The Mirror said in a statement: "This morning, a picture in a story about Kwasi Kwarteng was wrongly captioned on the Mirror website. This was a terrible error, and we apologise to Mr Kwarteng and all our readers. The Mirror has a long history of working against racism, and we will redouble our efforts on this."

The wrong image appeared underneath a link promoting Black History Month stories on the Mirror website.

Hornsey and Wood Green Conservative Chairman Ben Obese-Jecty said: "Good to see the Daily Mirror kicking off its coverage of Black History Month with this “they-all-look-thesame-don't-they?” clanger.

"You'd think, given the coverage he's received this week, that most people in the press would know what Kwasi Kwarteng looked like…"

…paratrooping

CPL fans were looking forward to seeing GDF paratroopers jumping into Providence National Stadium for the finals last Friday. But when a 2nd paratrooper was injured during a Thursday practice session, it was cancelled.

The Warriors’ elimination distracted them??

The

The marijuana that was discovered in Better Hope

World Maritime Day…

MARAD willing to work with stakeholders to build climatefriendly shipping industry

…LCDS will propel pathway to greener shipping

In view of the recently con cluded World Maritime Day 2022, the Maritime Administration Department (MARAD) remains committed to working with stakeholders in order to build a climate- friend ly shipping industry. This is ac cording to MARAD’s Director General, Captain Stephen Thomas.

In his World Maritime Day message, Thomas noted the im portance of the day to mariners and all those involved in the maritime sector. According to him, there is much more the in dustry can do in moving towards safer shipping and greener seas.

“Guyana will not be left be hind, as MARAD is willing to work with key stakeholders to ensure that our energy transi tion aligns with international standards in order to lend the right support to the local ship ping industry,” Thomas has said.

“Guyana’s ocean area is more than half of Guyana’s ter ritorial area. Thus, we are en dowed with the space to pursue greener shipping through the expansion of the blue economy and the implementation of sus tainable economic development initiatives,” he added.

When it comes to the reduc tion of greenhouse gas emis sions, Thomas noted that mea sures such as slow steaming, the implementation of sails, and more efficient hull designs have been touted as possible solu tions.

According to Thomas, the theme for World Maritime Day, “New technologies for greener shipping”, is a timely one.

“Guyana ratified the 2015

MARAD Director General, Captain Stephen Thomas

Paris Climate Agreement that aims for global climate reduc tion in emissions by the year 2050. The global shipping com munity has pledged to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Guyana’s commitment towards the reduction of emis sions is crucial in ensuring the planet’s future is protected for generations to come,” he has said.

Meanwhile, Public Works Minister Juan Edghill, the sub ject Minister responsible for MARAD, released a World Maritime Day message of his own in which he emphasised the importance of a sustainable maritime sector.

“This year’s theme under scores global efforts to champion innovation for the acceleration of the maritime sector’s transi tion to a “zero and low-emission future. A sustainable maritime future is important to all of us,” Edghill said.

“And the Government of Guyana, in recognition of this fact, is committed to the sustain able management of our mar itime resources in order to pro

mote growth, jobs, innovation and investments, while simulta neously implementing the nec essary safeguards for a healthy eco-system and marine environ ment.”

According to Edghill, Guyana’s national strategic plans, such as the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) 2030, align with global climate goals, and will propel the coun try’s efforts to achieve greener shipping.

The LCDS was first launched on June 8, 2009, and the revised version has been published in May 2010. This ver sion was subsequently launched in March 2013. The new draft is intended to continue and build upon the work started in 2008.

Money from the LCDS has since created low-carbon jobs; enabled Amerindian villages to receive legal titles for com munal lands; rehabilitated the Cunha Canal, to protect against flooding; and started to equip Amerindian and hinterland communities with renewable energy, digital infrastructure, and sustainable livelihood op portunities.

A new LCDS 2030 has, meanwhile, been ratified in the National Assembly. It seeks to create a new low-carbon econ omy in Guyana by establish ing incentives which value the world’s ecosystem services, and promote these as an essential component of a new model of global development, with sus tainability at its core.

In Guyana’s case, it is about harnessing the value of the country’s ecosystem services to build a long-term, low-carbon di versification opportunity. (G3)

Standards in agri sector can make goods more marketable – GNBS

AsOctober starts and denotes Agriculture Month in Guyana, the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) has em phasised the role of stan dards in the success of the sector.

As the National Standards Institution, the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) brings to focus its standards, certi fication, training and mea surement services which are crucial for the enhancement and advancement of the lo cal agriculture sector.

“Over the years, the GNBS has been working with stakeholders in this growing sector to develop National Standards which ensure good practices and conformance to quality and accelerate its growth and development. The GNBS list of agriculture-related stan dards includes the grading of fresh agriculture produce, which can help farmers and retailers to separate produce based on colour, size, fresh ness, and other characteris

tics,” the GNBS shared.

These grading standards also provide requirements and specifications to help regulators, and consumers identify and consume qual ity agricultural produce.

Other agriculture standards available at the GNBS in clude those for poultry meats and eggs, coconut wa ter, milk, rice, sugar, and

fertilisers.

For agro-processing, there are standards for jams and jellies, coconut oil, salt ed fish, spices, achar and more, which processors can utilise. These standards cover labelling, packaging, storage, hygiene, and san itation requirements for products, and offer the req uisite guidelines and specifi

cation to ensure agricultural produce are wholesome for consumption. They also help agro-processors gain val ue-added benefits.

“Stakeholders in the agri sector can take advan tage of the GNBS certifica tion services to make pro duce more marketable and desirable. Local produc ers and agro-processors can

now apply to the GNBS to use the Made in Guyana Certification Mark, which is a signature of quality for au thentic Guyanese products,” the Bureau highlighted.

Already, the GNBS not ed that the Made in Guyana Standards Mark has cap tured the attention of quite a few agro-processors, with some becoming certi fied early to use the mark. The Made in Guyana pro gramme is voluntary and is open to applications from all producers of local products regardless of operation size or product type.

Many farmers, agro-pro cessors and even regulators have had the opportunity to participate in the various GNBS training programmes to increase their competence in order to implement na tional and internationally recognised standards.

“Training offered to those in the sector includes the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) and Good Agricultural Practices (GAP). GAP is a set of princi ples and standards that gov

ern the safe and sustainable production of crops and live stock. It is aimed at helping farm owners optimise busi ness operations while mini mising production costs and environmental impacts.”

The Bureau also pro vides training on the ISO 22000:2018 Standard: A Food Safety Management System – Requirements for any organisation in the food chain. With this training, participants can gain a thor ough understanding of how this international standard applies to farming, process ing, storage, transportation, cleaning, and sanitation for safe and healthy produce from the farm to the fork.

Lastly, as the National Measurement Institution, the Bureau continuously of fers reliable measurement services to farmers, millers and other agriculture-relat ed businesses operating in the sector. These services include the verification of scales, masses and mea sures use in transactions. (G12)

CLR James, cricket, culture and politics

For me, cricket in Guyana always makes me return to CLR James’s masterpiece, “Beyond the boundary”, in which he ruminates on the question “What do they know of cricket that only cricket knows?”

With the CPL Tournament ended, perchance one can share some of his insights, along with his caveat that context is always paramount. Even though the book is autobiographical, and so anchored in events from a century ago, his observations still resonate.

While some purists may sniff that T-20’s showmanship is overthe-top, even back then, when Test Cricket was the only format in existence, he insisted cricket was ‘a spectacle’. “Cricket is first and foremost a dramatic spectacle. It belongs with the theatre, ballet, opera and the dance.” And like all those art forms, while they may have originated elsewhere, to take root, cricket, on and off the field, had to become integrated into the lived experience of the local society.

James again, “The cricket field was a stage on which selected individuals played representative roles which were charged with social significance”. James wrote about a neighbour, seen as coarse and crass by his prim and proper spinster aunts, becoming transformed into a hero as he plays strokes of sublime beauty on the cricket pitch. He uplifts all the spectators, who are mostly from his social strata; they see themselves refracted in his performance, and it offers them hope.

In my village of Uitvlugt, the Community Centre, built in the mid-fifties by Bookers, was a pilgrimage site to which I gravitated every Sunday to view our local sugar workers become transformed from plantation drudges into flannel-clad stars as they battled teams from the surrounding villages on the cricket field. Even as a boy, a total klutz in the game, I could apprehend cane-cutter Fogo whipping that ball off his toes as “a thing of beauty is a joy forever”.

It was for these sugar estate grounds that Bookers hired the great Clive Walcott as a coach, and it was these grounds that produced the flamboyant and unorthodox Rohan Kanhai. James was to describe Kanhai: “In Kanhai’s batting, what I have found is a unique pointer of the West Indian quest for identity, for ways of expressing our potential, bursting at every seam.” It was due to James’s lobbying that Worrell was made Captain of the West Indies Cricket Team in 1960, breaking the colour barrier and validating merit as the criterion for selection of leaders. Independence for Trinidad and Jamaica in 1962 was an expression of that confidence writ large.

In terms of the flamboyant style of CPL Cricket, this is a continuation of the early subversion of colonial cricket by players like Kanhai, who would deliberately fall on his back to hook a ball for four. Along with other WI players, they unhitched cricket from “Englishness” to de- Victorianise the sport that was supposed to usher us natives into “modernity”. The spectacle of the CPL T20 cricket tournament, with its carnivalesque crowds and kaleidoscopic uniforms, creates an indigenous Caribbean identity by using tools that had turned us as colonised subjects into colonised objects. We are playing Caribbean Cricket, and the erstwhile masters can now only try to imitate us in order to catch up.

Coming to the seemingly excessive support by the Guyanese public (domestic and foreign) for the Warriors, James had noted that the cricketers’ success ‘atoned for a pervading humiliation, and nourished pride and hope’. He drew a historical parallel between our euphoric feelings on the excellence of our cricketers and the Greeks’ iconisation of their athletes: “The Greeks believed that an athlete who had represented his community at a national competition and won had thereby conferred a notable distinction on his city. His victory was a testament to the quality of his citizens.” And in like fashion, so was his defeat, hence our national mood of depression following the Warriors’ elimination from the Tournament.

James also connected cricket to a philosophy of West Indian life inculcated in the schools: “I acquired the discipline for which the only name is Puritan. I never cheated, I never argued with the umpire, I never jeered at a defeated opponent, I never gave a friend a vote or a place which…could be seen as belonging to a stranger.”

Would that our politicians had inculcated such values.

Parika-Supenaam route

Ferry pass online payment system aims to reduce waiting lines, complaints ...touted for Suriname route by January

After decades of oper ating with in-person booking for ferries, commuters for the first time will be able to secure their spot using an online book ing system.

“Ferry Pass” was launched on Saturday at the Parika Stelling and will be running concurrently with current operations to make bookings easier.

Phase One of this ini tiative includes only the route between Parika and Supenaam, with MMG of fering the payment solution. Online reservations will get first preference against those who prefer the in-per son ticketing system.

The platform can sup port other routes but this pilot will monitor opera tions and usage. Phase Two will entail other payment options and provisions for differently-abled persons.

Public Works Minister Juan Edghill dubbed this introduction a big differ ence in the lives of people

that is open to the entire public makes travelling eas ier and more comfortable and saving lots and lots of time. And that is what Ferry Pass will do…This is making life easy for every body. And it is making the system one that is fair and predictable,” Edghill under scored.

The Minister added that there have been complaints of persons abusing the sys tem, leaving others disen franchised. This new ad dition, he related, is an avenue to stop corruption.

“We have to stop the cor ruption. We have to stop the occasion for corruption. Oftentimes, the people who complain about the corrup tion are the people who par ticipate in the corruption or when you do work for them. That’s when they complain.”

By December 1, this mechanism will be avail able for the Supenaam to Bartica route. Later in Jan 2023, online booking for Leguan, Wakenaam,

our Surinamese counter part and we must put on line booking for the MV Canawaima by January 1, 2023. We must get it done. It is the same form and that is the direction we’re go ing, so people don’t have to drive all the way to Moleson Creek, sleep in a car wait ing to get on. If we did it at Supenaam-Parika, we can do it anywhere else,” the Minister told stakeholders.

Meanwhile, General Manager at MMG, Bobita Ram shared that the Guyanese public should look forward to more tech nological changes to bring comfort and ease while ac cessing services. To date, MMG has over 100,000 us ers.

venience, since these are the pillars on which MMG services are delivered since our launch nine years ago, and since then, has radical ly transformed the payment landscape of Guyana.”

According to her, other Government agencies that require in-person payments should consider other tech nological and cashless plat forms.

using the ferry service, with reduced loss of time since patrons can bypass having to show up hours before to secure a spot.

“A system that is trans parent, accountable, acces sible, where it’s not left to the discretion of an individ ual at any level, but is one

Mabaruma, Port Kaituma and Morawhanna and Fort Island will come on steam.

The Minister also add ed that by Jan 2023, on line booking for the MV Canawaima, which plies the Guyana to Suriname Route, should be achieved.

“We must work with

“When we were in vited to collaborate with Transport [and] Harbours Department on creation of Ferry Pass, we immediate ly saw the many benefits such an initiative would bring the commuters, first of all by saving time, eas ing the stress of wondering whether or not their vehicle would make it on the ferry and enhancing accountabil ity overall.”

She added, “More ini tiatives driven by technol ogy and the desire to bring ease and convenience to ev eryday lives. Let me stress on the words ease and con

Minister within the Public Works Ministry, Deodat Indar underscored under the Transport and Harbours Department, in frastructure has been under the microscope to ensure a smooth flow. He shared that persons can be frustrated with the current system, and it can sometimes disad vantage commuters. Even with this system, Indar said, monitoring is present for a fair process.

“It will have to be man aged properly. Because if you have a parallel system working, which we’re do ing now, is to have an on line booking system with a manual one just to make sure there is no failure in the holes of the whole trans port system. People book ing sometime can frustrate people too. So, we are ask ing people when to the on line booking, do it honest ly,” Indar reassured. (G12)

Ravi Dev

Commuters will benefit from ease of travel with the new ferry pass

Dredging, markers being undertaken for safer navigation of Guyana’s waters – Edghill

Safety in navigating

Guyana’s waters is being taken more se riously, with the Guyana Government taking ade quate measures to ensure all elements are in place.

This is according to Public Works Minister Juan Edghill on Saturday, as he spoke on efforts to dredge the rivers and install mark ers at key points.

“You will realise that we are making several trips per day. Two of the things that we have to improve on and Government is making the unnecessary investments in dredging to make sure that the ferry can move without hitting sandbanks in going and coming in. The captains could be sure that they know

what’s happening. And sec ondly, we have to get and we are doing the beacons and the markers to ensure safety in navigation,” the Minister pointed out.

Through the Maritime Administration, Edghill said improvements are be ing made in all major rivers where vessels are frequently traversing.

“So, the Government of Guyana along with MARAD, which is the body that is responsible for regulat ing what takes place, we are working on improving that. And it’s not just in the Essequibo River. It is in the Pomeroon, the Barima, the Waini, the Berbice and the Demerara. We’re continuing to improve safety and ensur

ing that we can be able to get to those areas.”

Drydocking

Another aspect of en suring safety has been the drydocking of vessels, since many were previously in a dilapidated state. Since this year, all of the vessels have been drydocked.

“Since this year began, all of our vessels – five of them – have gone into dry dock and they have been to tally rehabbed. They’re look ing much better. 2022 is a big year for the Transport and Harbours Department. We’ve had the MV Kanawan, MV Sabanto MV Malali MV Mokouria, and MV Kimbia all going into dry dock and

they’re now out,” he added.

While the ferries are now ‘attractive’, Minister Edghill expressed that persons are now interested in using them for cruises. However, he warned that there are strict guidelines for such to be granted, along with pro visions in place for travellers to get to their destination.

“I have also given guide lines to the Transport and Harbours Department be cause we had a cruise that took place here not so long ago and everything that should not have happened, happened. I’ve indicated that the person who oper ated that cruise will not be allowed to operate another cruise on our vessels for a very long time. Secondly, I want to promise the people of Guyana that we will not take these vessels off and put them on a cruise to the annoyance of the travelling public.”

The new MV Ma Lisha, that was procured to ser vice the North West District region, will be arriving by year-end. It will cut trav el time by 50 per cent, with a speed at 15 knots and 500 nautical miles endurance. It has a 250-tonne cargo capac ity with a six-tonne capacity crane and will be powered by two engines. (G12)

Father rushing son to hospital kills pedestrian on WCD road

Tragedy struck twice for a man after he struck down and killed a pedestrian while he was rushing to take his son to the hospital.

Dead is 43-year-old Umesh Ramkishun of Lot 38 First Street Grove, East Bank Demerara.

Police said that about 19:15h on Friday evening, a 47-year-old resident of Sea View Anna Catherina, West Coast Demerara (WCD), was driving motor car PZZ 9115 at a fast rate of speed to take his son, who at tempted suicide, to the West Demerara Hospital.

However, while in the vi cinity of the Harlem Public Road, WCD, he struck down Ramkishun, who was cross ing the road in the company of another pedestrian.

As a result of the colli

sion, Ramkishun fell onto the bonnet and windscreen of the car and received in juries to his head and body. His right foot was also sev ered from his body.

The pedestrian was picked up by the Police and escorted to the West Demerara Regional Hospital, where he was pro nounced dead on arrival.

The driver was arrested and a breathalyser test was conducted on him, but no trace of alcohol was found.

Notice of intended prosecu tion was also served on the driver and statement taken.

The body of the deceased is presently lying at the Ezekiel Mortuary awaiting a post-mortem examina tion.

The driver is in custody assisting with the investi gation. (G9)

Public Works Minister, Juan Edghill

DISASTER RISK REDUCTION DAY

What is Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)?

Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) is reducing disaster risks through systematic efforts to analyze and reduce the causal factors of disasters.

It involves reducing exposure to hazards, lessening the vulnerability of people and property, wise management of land and other natural resources, and improving preparedness for adverse events.

DRR aims to reduce socio-economic vulnerabilities to disasters, as well as deal with the environmental and other hazards that trigger them. Disasters often follow natural hazards, and their severity depends on how much impact a hazard has on society and the environment. The scale of the impact, in turn, depends on the choices we make for our lives and for our environment. These choices relate to how we grow our food, where and how we build our homes, how our financial systems work, and even what we teach in schools. Each decision and action make us more vulnerable to disasters - or more resilient to them.

Disaster risk reduction is everyone's business! Disaster risk reduction is also part of sustainable development. In order for development activities to be sustainable, they must also reduce disaster risk. On the other hand, unsound development policies would increase disaster risk and losses from disasters. DRR, therefore, involves every part of society, every part of the Government, and every part of the professional and private sectors.

It is often said that there is no such thing as a natural disaster, only natural hazards. When a community is affected by a flood, for example, we think of it as a disaster and something we cannot control. We may not be able to stop a flood from happening through heavy rainfall, but could we have prevented the waters from getting into our homes? Could our buildings have been built in a way that water would not get in easily? Could our drains have been litter-free, so that the water could drain off easily? Is the area particularly low and easily flooded? If so, should we have built there in the first place?

Disaster risk reduction is about understanding our personal and environmental risks, and finding ways to reduce those risks, so that we are not affected by them, or are able to bounce back quickly if they do affect us.

Disasters do not have to happen - we can all do something to reduce our risk!

Many people around the world have lost their lives, homes, or access to essential facilities such as hospitals, due to natural hazards, which include earthquakes, droughts, tsunamis, heavy flooding, hurricanes, or cyclones. Some of these hazards have caused economic damage to some countries in addition to the loss of life.

The UN acknowledges that education, training, and information exchanges are effective ways to help people become better equipped to withstand natural hazards.

Effective risk management must involve those most at risk, and often children are overlooked. Children are often portrayed as victims of disaster and climate change. However, children can and should be encouraged to participate in disaster risk reduction and decision-making.

EPA’s role in disaster risk reduction

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) mandate is to oversee the effective management, conservation, protection, and improvement of the environment. This requires the Agency to take the necessary measures to ensure the prevention and control of pollution, assess environmental and human health impacts of economic activities, and regulate the sustainable use of natural resources.

The EPA’s emergency response forms part of Guyana’s action to reduce the severity of environmental disasters, should they occur. The Agency also works closely with the Civil Defence Commission (CDC), the coordinating agency for disaster management in Guyana, on a number of initiatives that are designed to raise awareness and craft policies to prepare communities and households to manage impacts.

The CDC has embarked on a number of initiatives to strengthen and enhance community-based early warning systems (CBEWS) in vulnerable coastal, hinterland, and Indigenous communities across Guyana. The project entails the incorporation of CBEWS into the already implemented community-based disaster risk management (CBDRM) system in the hazard-prone coastal, hinterland, and Indigenous communities in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP’s) Strengthening Disaster Management Capacity of Women in the Cooperative Republic of Guyana and the Commonwealth of Dominica project. Further, a number of target-specific public education and awareness campaigns are being conducted to help us all understand disaster risk management a little better, and what we can do to contribute.

On Thursday, October 13, Guyana would join the rest of the world in observing the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction.

For additional information on Disaster Risk Reduction, contact can be made with the Civil Defence Commission (CDC), at Thomas Road, Thomas Lands, Georgetown, or on telephone numbers: 226-1114, 226-8815, 225-5847, or 226-1027; or by visiting the website at www.cdc.gy

You can share your ideas and questions by sending letters to: “Our Earth, Our Environment”, C/O ECEA Programme, Environmental Protection Agency, Ganges Street, Sophia, GEORGETOWN, or email us at: eit.epaguyana@gmail.com. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Body at La Grange Dead woman identified, murder suspected

house.

Her body was identified by her 54-year-old mother, Savitri, of La Grange Public Road, when she made a visit to her daughter's home.

The woman said she dis covered her daughter's life less body in the house, ly ing face down on her bed. She was at the time clad in a pink top, without any un dergarments.

CANU unearths $4.7M in ganja at WCB

Kwakwani man slapped with rape charge

Jamal Gilkes, 23, of Kwakwani Park, Upper Berbice River was arrested on Tuesday and charged with the of fence of Rape of a Child under 16 years.

Police said the rape occurred on July 8, in a community located in the Upper Berbice River.

The woman, whose body was found on Friday at La Grange, West Bank Demerara (WBD), has been identified as Nirmala Sukhai, a 33-year-old female labourer.

Reports are that the Lot 35 Factory Dam, La Grange, WBD woman’s body was found on Friday at 16:00h.

It is suspected that the woman died sometime be tween Thursday at about 23:00h and 16:00h on Friday.

Based on reports, Sukhai resided alone in a flat, two-bedroom concrete

A reddish substance that appeared to be blood was seen oozing from her mouth. The scene was can vassed and a pair of grey short pants were found on the bed. Police said it ap peared as though it was cut from the back.

A knife with a brown handle was also found un der the deceased’s body on the bed.

The woman was tak en to the West Demerara Regional Hospital where she was pronounced dead on ar rival. On Saturday, Police said that while several per sons have been questioned, no one was arrested.

The matter is be ing treated as a murder. Investigations continue.

Ranks

of the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) discovered over 34 pounds of marijua na during an operation con ducted at Experiment Bath, West Coast Berbice, on Saturday.

Reports are that CANU officers went to Lot 365 Experiment Bath, where a search was conducted on a minibus, bearing license plate number BZZ 4342, during which a quantity of suspected cannabis was dis covered.

A further search was conducted on motorcar, PTT 7821, which was also at the location and this resulted in the discovery of another quantity of suspected can nabis.

According to CANU a 38-year-old man who

was at home at the time of the search was arrest ed and escorted to CANU’s Headquarters along with the narcotics and both mo tor vehicles.

The 10 parcels of narcot ics tested positive for canna bis and weighed 15.8 kilo grammes with a street value of approximately GY$4.7M.

Investigations are ongo ing.

However, on Friday, the accused appeared be fore Magistrate Wanda Fortune at the Linden Magistrate's Court.

The charge was read to him and he was not re quired to plea. He was re manded to prison and the case was adjourn to November 8. (G9) Remanded: Jamal Gilkes

The vehicles and drugs that were seized by CANU

Dead: Nirmala Sukhai

Lawsuit to repossess river frontage

Trial Judge erred; decision misconceived in law – AG in appeal pleadings

when he determined that the Attorney General’s case was wholly misconceived and an abuse of the process of the court and awarded $2 million in costs, but also his decision is contrary to the interest of the administra tion of justice as it is unfair and/or unreasonable.

Through the SoC, Nandlall was seeking to have the sale of the lands

at Water Street or Mudlots 1 and 2; Lot F of Mudlot 3 and Lots A, B and D, North Cummingsburg, Georgetown be declared il legal, unlawful, null, void, repugnant and contrary to public policy.

He insists that the lands were sold at a gross under value and way below market value, and that BK Marine was unjustly enriched by $5

billion through this transac tion.

Meanwhile, the former Finance Minister is cur rently facing a criminal charge at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts for mis conduct in public office over the sale of those same lands to BK Marine. He has been released on $3 million bail pending the hearing and de termination of a trial. (G8)

Attorney General

Anil Nandlall, SC, is challenging a re cent decision by High Court Judge, Justice Brassington Reynolds, who stuck out his legal action that sought to repossess river frontage sold to BK Marine under the previous A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Administration.

Back in February of this year, Nandlall, on behalf of the Government, had filed a Statement of Claim (SoC) seeking to overturn the con troversial sale of the plot of waterfront land to BK Marine which was done by former Finance Minister Winston Jordan.

BK Marine is a subsid iary of BK International, which is owned by Brian Tiwarie.

Jordan, who was the sec ond named defendant in the legal action, had asked for the Claim to be dismissed on the ground that it discloses no cause of action, is mis conceived, and is an abuse of the court’s process, as it is politically motivated and ac tuated by bad faith, vindic tiveness, and spite and con stitutes an abuse of power, was frivolous and vexatious, and/or scandalous.

As a result, on September 13, Justice Reynolds dis missed the SoC, ruling that while the Attorney General is authorised to bring an ac tion for misfeasance in pub lic office against Jordan, he did not, in this case, satisfy the elements of the tort.

AG Nandlall has sub sequently described this ruling as “one of the most shocking decisions I have ever witnessed in my brief career at the Bar” and com mitted to challenge the de cision.

Consequently, he filed a Notice of Appeal at the Full Court on September 28, against the decision of the High Court Judge.

In the legal document, the Attorney General is seeking from the Full Court, “…an Order setting aside, reversing and/or vacating

the decision…” of Justice Reynolds.

The Attorney General ar gued in his appeal that the Trial Judge erred and his decision was misconceived in law when he dismissed the Statement of Claim on the basis of an abuse of the court’s process as there was no viable cause of action on basis of Misfeasance in Public Office and sought to make findings on the evi dence when there were only pleadings before the court on the substantive case and no evidence had yet been filed, and no evidence was taken from any of the wit nesses to test the veracity of the witnesses and weighing of the evidence.

Nandlall contended that the causes of action of neg ligence, conspiracy, mis feasance and fraud are all required to be specifically pleaded, particularised and proved as a matter of law. Therefore, he noted that the Judge erred and misdirect ed himself in law when he summarily dismissed these causes of actions, thereby depriving the Appellant of the opportunity of proving any of these causes of ac tion.

According to the AG, the Learned Trial Judge further erred and his decision was misconceived in law when the court found there was no breach of a fiduciary duty by former Minister Jordon but failed to take viva voce evi dence before arriving at this conclusion. He also contend ed that the Judge erred in failing to take viva voce evi dence on the causes of action of negligence, conspiracy and fraud, and, as a conse quence, could not arrive at a conclusion that they were not established based on ap plications to strike out the Claim without more.

It was further argued that Justice Reynolds was misconceived in law in fail ing to adhere to the estab lished principle under the New Civil Procedure Rules that striking out a Claim is a draconian step that is rarely employed once on the

face of the Claim, there are issues to be ventilated.

“The Learned Trial Judge erred and miscon ceived in law when he ig nored the binding case law which established that the Appellant, Attorney General always has stand ing to bring an action in misfeasance to recover fi nancial loss suffered by the State in consequence of wrongdoing in public of fice… The Learned Trial Judge erred and misdirect ed himself in law when he found that the Appellant did not meet the very high standard required to prove misfeasance in public of fice when the Trial Judge failed to test any evidence to determinate whether the Claim had merit or not;” the Notice of Appeal further de tailed.

It was also outlined, among a host of other grounds, that the Judge erred and misdirected him self in law when he found that the AG failed to prove that there was dishonest motive, bad faith and that the former Finance Minister gained financial benefit when the case of the AG was not premised on financial benefit and this could not be ascertained when absolute ly no evidence was taken for such as determination to be made.

“The Learned Trial Judge erred and misdirect ed himself in law when he irrationally considered that because the subject lands had been vested…[to] the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), the Government could no lon ger be interested in these lands… The Learned Trial Judge erred and misdirect ed himself in law in when he formed the view that [NICIL] was the proper par ty to institute proceedings against the [BK Marine] and that in any event, the case would be statute barred,” it was argued.

Further, Nandlall contended that Justice Reynolds erred not only

Attorney General Anil Nandlall, SC

Owner of BK Group, Brian Tiwarie

Justice Brassington Reynolds

Regional Front-runner Lula close to outright win in Brazil election, poll shows

Brazilian leftist lead er Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva maintains a solid lead going into today’s presi dential race against far-right incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro and is within sight of an outright victory, a fresh poll showed on Saturday.

Brazil’s most polarised election in decades will decide whether to return to power a former President who spent time in jail on corruption con victions or a right-wing popu list who has attacked the vot ing system and threatened to contest defeat.

A CNT/MDA poll pub lished on Saturday said Lula would win 48.3 per cent of the valid votes, putting him statis

tically within reach of taking half of the votes, which would avoid a bruising run-off. The poll has a margin of error of

2.2 percentage points.

If no one among the 11 candidates gets more than 50 per cent of votes, exclud

ing blank and spoiled ballots, the two front-runners - almost certainly Lula and Bolsonarowould go to second round vote on Oct 30.

The MDA poll com missioned by the national transport lobby CNT shows Bolsonaro has chipped away at half of Lula’s lead, which is now down to 7.9 percent age points point (44.2 per cent for Lula and 36.3 per cent for Bolsonaro).

Two other major pollsters Datafolha and IPEC have pro jected Lula winning outright and will publish their last poll ing at 6 pm (2100GMT).

Bolsonaro, a former army captain who spent 28 years as a Congressman who is progun, anti-gay and against abortion, was swept into office in 2018 on a wave of conserva tive sentiment and opposition to Lula’s Workers Party.

Due to Bolsonaro’s attacks on the voting system and the prospect of conflict, the TSE has invited an unprecedent ed number of international ob servers to this year’s election. (Excerpt from Reuters)

Venezuela releases seven jailed Americans in prisoner swap

Venezuela on Saturday freed seven jailed Americans, includ ing five oil executives, in exchange for Washington’s release of two relatives of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, US officials said.

The swap included ex ecutives of Citgo Petroleum held for years, in addi tion to US Marine veteran Matthew Heath and anoth er American citizen named Osman Khan, the officials said. They were exchanged for two of Maduro’s wife’s nephews, who had been con victed on drug charges, the officials said.

President Joe Biden said in a statement that the “wrongfully detained” Americans “will soon be re united with their families and back in the arms of their loved ones where they belong.”

“Today, we celebrate that seven families will be whole once more. To all the fami lies who are still suffering

and separated from their loved ones who are wrong fully detained – know that we remain dedicated to se curing their release,” Biden said.

The release followed months of secretive talks between the United States and Maduro’s Socialist Government, which is under strict US sanctions, includ ing on the OPEC nation’s energy sector.

It comes at a time when Washington has come under heavy pressure to do more to secure freedom for dozens of Americans held abroad, in cluding in Russia.

Maduro’s Government said that as a result of talks that started in March two young Venezuelans “unjust ly” held in the United States were freed as well as a group of US citizens who were sub ject to Venezuelan court proceedings. The state ment in state media said the Americans were released for “humanitarian reasons.”

(Excerpt from Reuters)

Brazil’s former President and presidential candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva lead ing a silent march in Sao Paulo, Brazil, October 1, 2022

OIL NEWS

OPEC raises oil production to highest level in years

OPEC raised its September crude oil production to the highest level since 2020, a Reuters survey found on Friday—yet failed to meet its September quota.

OPEC’s production for September came in below its specified quota for the month, although the month on month increase in production was higher than the promised 64,000 bpd hike.

The survey found that OPEC’s September production reached 29.81 million bpd—a 210,000 bpd increase over August. For its 10 participating members in the OPEC cut, September’s production was 130,000 bpd over August levels, but still shy of their full production targets.

For September, the survey found that the 10 participating members of the OPEC production pact underproduced their target by 1.32 million bpd—an improvement over their 1.4 million bpd shortfall in August.

As widely expected, Saudi Arabia managed to raise its production by 50,000 bpd for September, reaching its 11 million bpd target. The UAE and Kuwait also hit their targets.

Iraq’s production was “little changed” according to Reuters. Libya and Nigeria, exempt from the OPEC production agreement, raised their production, helping contribute to the group’s overall production increase.

OPEC+ has reportedly narrowed down its options for November’s production plans, and is currently discussing a production cut between 500,000 bpd and 1 million bpd, a Reuters source said on Friday. The larger OPEC+ group is scheduled to meet on October 5 to formalise its plan for November.

Earlier this week, Russia was reportedly recommending to the group a production cut of 1 million bpd.

Signs point to OPEC+ being willing to defend somewhere near US$90 oil. Currently, the Brent benchmark is trading at US$88.30 per barrel—trading down despite the heightened geopolitical situation with Russia and Ukraine, the tight market, and increased tensions over the Nord Stream 1 & 2 gas pipeline explosions. (Oilprice.com)

Britain has 'too many' low-skilled migrants, Interior Minister says

Britain has too many low-skilled mi grant workers and very high numbers of in ternational students, who often brought dependents with them, the country's new Interior Minister Suella Braverman said in an interview with The Sun on Sunday newspa per.

Braverman said new Prime Minister Liz Truss's Government aimed to stick to a 2019 election pledge to lower net migration in an inter view ahead of the ruling Conservative Party's an nual conference.

Finance Minister Kwasi Kwarteng said on Sept 23 that the Government was looking to review immigration pol icy as part of an attempt to boost growth, following complaints from business groups that post-Brexit rules were too restrictive, especially for low-paid jobs.

However, Braverman said reducing migration was an aim shared by all of Truss's senior minis ters.

"What we've got is too many low skilled work ers coming into this coun try," she said. "We've also got a very high number of students coming into this country and we've got a really high number of de pendents."

"Those people are com ing here, they're not nec essarily working or they're working in low-skilled jobs, and they're not con tributing to growing our economy," she added.

Since January 2021, most workers must be paid at least 25,600 pounds (US$28,570) a year for an employer to sponsor a visa, causing problems for employers in sectors such as agriculture, hospitality and some manufacturing, where lower wages are common. ( Excerpt from Reuters)

Around the World

Russia abandons Ukrainian bastion, Putin ally suggests nuclear response

Russia said on Saturday its troops had aban doned the key bastion of Lyman in occupied eastern Ukraine, a stinging defeat that prompted a close ally of President Vladimir Putin to call for the possible use of low-grade nuclear weapons.

The announcement came just a day after Putin pro claimed the annexation of four Ukrainian regions - in cluding Donetsk, where the city of Lyman is located - and placed them under Russia's nuclear umbrella, at a cere mony that was condemned by Kyiv and the West as an illegitimate farce.

"In connection with the creation of a threat of encir clement, allied troops were withdrawn from the settle ment of Krasny Liman to more advantageous lines," Russia's Defence Ministry said, using the Russian name of the town.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy later said in a vid

eo address that although the Ukrainian flag was flying in the city, "fighting is still go ing on there".

He also indicated Ukrainian troops had taken the village of Torske, on the main road out of Lyman to the east.

The Russian statement ended hours of official si lence after Ukraine first said it had surrounded thousands

of Russian troops in the area and then that its forces were inside the city.

Ukraine's Defence Ministry wrote on Twitter that "almost all" the Russian troops in Lyman had either been captured or killed.

Russia has used Lyman as a logistics and transport hub for its operations in the north of the Donetsk region. Its capture would be Ukraine's

biggest battlefield gain since a lightning counteroffensive in the northeastern Kharkiv region last month.

Zelenskiy said that in the days to come, Ukrainian forc es would liberate more towns.

The recent Ukrainian successes have infuriated Putin allies such as Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Russia's southern Chechnya region, who said he felt com pelled to speak out.

"In my personal opin ion, more drastic measures should be taken, right up to the declaration of martial law in the border areas and the use of low-yield nuclear weapons," Kadyrov wrote on Telegram before Zelenskiy spoke.

Other top Putin al lies, including former presi dent Dmitry Medvedev, have suggested Russia may need to resort to nuclear weap ons, but Kadyrov's call was the most urgent and explicit. (Excerpt from Reuters)

Nord Stream leaks are likely single largest methane release ever – UN

The ruptures on the Nord Stream nat ural gas pipeline system under the Baltic Sea have led to what is likely the biggest single release of climate-dam aging methane ever re corded, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has said.

A huge plume of high ly concentrated methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent but shorter-lived than carbon dioxide, was detected in an analysis this week of satellite im agery by researchers as sociated with the UNEP’s International Methane Emissions Observatory, or IMEO, the organisation said on Friday.

“This is really bad, most likely the largest emis sion event ever detect

ed,” Manfredi Caltagirone, head of the IMEO for UNEP, told Reuters.

Researchers at GHGSat, which uses sat ellites to monitor meth ane emissions, estimated the leak rate from one of

four rupture points was 22,920kg (around 50,000 lbs) per hour. That is equivalent to burning about 630,000 pounds (around 286,000kg) of coal every hour, GHGSat said in a statement.

The IMEO tweeted on Saturday that new data appears to indicate that the leakage of methane appears to be diminishing.

“New analysis of data provided by the satellite Sentinel2 today indicates a significant reduction in the estimated diameter of the methane plume – from 520m to 290m. A similar reduction is also observed in the estimated concen tration of methane leaked in the pipeline rupture,” the IMEO said,

The major leaks that suddenly erupted in the Nord Stream gas pipe lines that run from Russia to Europe have generat ed plenty of theories but few clear answers about who or what caused the damage. (Excerpt from Al Jazeera)

Burkina Faso coup: Gunshots in capital and roads blocked

Burkina Faso's self-declared lead er says the man he ousted a day ago in a coup is plotting a counter-at tack.

Col Ibrahim Traoré also accused the French army of harbouring Lt Col Paul-Henri Damiba at one of its bases - but France denies any involvement.

Gunshots were heard in Burkina Faso's capi tal city Ouagadougou on Saturday and helicopters have circled overhead.

Protesters started a

fire outside the French embassy - an attack con demned "with the greatest firmness" by Paris.

The French Foreign Ministry told AFP news agency that the securi ty of its compatriots was the greatest priority, adding that a crisis cen tre had been opened in Ouagadougou.

In the country's sec ond city, Bobo-Dioulasso, the gate of the French Institute was also report edly set ablaze by protest ers.

Friday's apparent take over had been announced on national TV and was the second time this year that the country's army had seized power.

On both occasions the coup leaders said they had to step in because nation al security was so dire.

Burkina Faso controls as little as 60 per cent of its territory, experts say, and Islamist violence is worsening. Since 2020 more than a million peo ple have been displaced in the country due to the vi

olence.

The African Union has demanded the return of constitutional order by July 2023 at the latest, agreeing with the region al group Ecowas that the ousting of leader Lt Col Damiba was "unconstitu tional".

Ecowas earlier said it was "inappropriate" for army rebels to seize pow er when the country was working towards civilian rule. (Excerpt from BBC News)

A Ukrainian soldier looking out from a tank amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in the frontline city of Lyman, Donetsk region, Ukraine April 28, 2022

27guyanatimesgy.com SUNDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2022 Danish ships monitoring the gas leak in the Baltic Sea off the coast of Denmark on September 30, 2022 [Danish Defence Command/ Handout via Reuters]

ARIES

(March 21April 19)

TAURUS (April 20May 20)

Put your emotions on the back burner and be reasonable. Think matters through, and you will come up with a plan that will encourage you to be more disciplined and detailed.

Adjust what isn’t working for you and go about your busi ness. Strive for peace of mind and eliminate negativity and opposition. Take control and live life your way. A change will lift your spirits.

GEMINI (MAY 28June 20)

Put your energy where it will do some good, and have fun. Get involved in something that al lows you to use your skills, tal ents and physical attributes to your advantage. Play to win.

Taking a risk with your health or heart will not bode well. Put your time and effort into self-discipline, organiza tion and mapping out a reason able way to move forward.

28 guyanatimesgy.comSUNDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2022 Emotions will get you in trouble. Overreacting to what others do or say will cost you. Don’t get involved in a joint venture or share expenses. Make your position clear.

LIBRA (Sept. 23Oct. 23)

Be a good listener and observe how others react to your words; it will help you find common ground. The information you gather will help you develop a solid plan. Romance looks promising.

VIRGO (Aug. 23Sept. 22)

CANCER CAPRICORN

Use charm, but don’t embel lish. How you conduct yourself at events or in conversations will determine who reaches out to you in support of your efforts. Set reasonable guidelines.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24Nov. 22)

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23Dec. 21)

Don’t try to fix what’s al ready working. Dedicate your time to nurturing a meaning ful relationship. If you overre act or overspend, you’ll pay the price, and it won’t be cheap.

A makeover, updated look or fixing up your surroundings will put you in a good head space. Make plans to spend time with a loved one and dis cuss your intentions. Don’t make promises you can’t keep.

(Dec. 22Jan. 19)

(June 21July 22) (Jan. 20Feb. 19)

LEO (July 23Aug. 22) (Feb. 20Mar. 20)

Problems will grow if you ar en’t well informed. Preparation and understanding the pitfalls you are up against will help you make decisions that will bene fit you and others. Choose peace over chaos.

AQUARIUS

Get involved in a move ment that makes you feel impassioned. Don’t let what others do interfere with your efforts. Discipline and hard work will turn an idea into something concrete.

You’ll find it difficult to say no. Don’t take on more than you can handle or hang out with people who pressure you to do things you shouldn’t. Be honest and prudent.

Peanuts

Calvin and Hobbes

Dilbert

Everything on track for year-end staging of Mr Guyana competition

…Bess confident that future of bodybuilding is in good hands

GBBFF President, Keavon Bess

By TimoThy Jaikarran

The year 2022 is facing its inevitable end, and the Guyana Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation (GBBFF) is seeking to host its “Mr Guyana” championship before then. According to GBBFF President Keavon Bess, all plans have been finalised, and the GBBFF is gearing up for the year-end spectacle.

In an interview with this publication, Bess was asked about the Mr Guyana competition, and he replied as follows: “Plans for Mr Guyana are coming along well. We have had an executive meeting to discuss the framework that has to be put in place for a successful event.

We have looked in all different angles, and the date we have in mind for having Mr Guyana, (in order for it to) be a successful competition this year. The most important thing is the funding we need (in order) to pull off the competition. We are looking to reach out to our sponsors and potential sponsors, so as to give rewards to the top finishing athletes.”

Bess noted that the athletes have been training assiduously, and he anticipates that the best of the best would be competing at Mr Guyana. He explained that, based on the tremendous turnout the GBBFF has had at CAC in Barbados, everyone is eager to see how those who had not gone to CAC would fare

against those who had gone there.

He is confident that the competition is going to be intense and very interesting, as he believes everyone would be out to challenge the reigning athletes in the different categories.

He also divulged that with Rosanna Fung gaining her Pro rank card in the Wellness category at CAC, more female athletes would be seeking the chance to take a shot at the title

this year, so as to become the next face of female bodybuilding in Guyana.

“The door is open, and it means well for the sport, as, when we have females in the sport, you can tell the sport is doing well. Once females are on stage, the guys are on stage as well. The females being on stage is the acid test to see how they are doing in bodybuilding. For the past three years, there have been a lot of females on stage, and a lot (have been) going to

represent Guyana overseas. So, I think the litmus test has proven in our favour that bodybuilding is doing well in Guyana,” Bess has declared.

Bess also related that he is proud of Rosanna Fung, as the last time a female athlete had gained a Pro Rank card was in 1979. He explained that it does well for the sport and the development of the women’s category in bodybuilding in Guyana.

In regard to the young and

India vs SA, T20I Series: Game 2 of 3…

upcoming athletes in the sport, Bess touted that they are “coming up sharp”, with the necessary understanding and biology of the sport.

“I can say bodybuilding is on the right trajectory, and there (is) a lot of young blood to dominate the stage after the older ones would have retired from the sport or taken a back seat. So, there is enough in the chamber to keep the sport going for many years,” Bess has posited.

India look to seal series – with Bumrah injury in mind

With two-thirds of this series still to be played, it's fair to assume that the sentiment prevailing among most of India's cricketconsuming public is for India to seal the series by winning the next encounter.

You can't blame them, because a: it's Jasprit Bumrah, b: there's a World Cup around the corner, and c: information about his injury has been scant and shrouded in a noirish fog. However, two T20Is still remain, for both India and South Africa, before that World Cup.

India would want to prepare for the possibility of a global tournament without Bumrah. They'll want to give Rishabh Pant and Dinesh Karthik time in the middle, a cwommodity of which they haven't had much over recent weeks.

South Africa would want their top order to bounce back from the horrors of Thiruvananthapuram. They'll also look to explore and finetune the myriad bowling combinations they could pick on any given day.

Should India win Sunday

night's game in Guwahati, they will wrap up a T20I series victory against South Africa at home for the first time in four attempts. South Africa would want to prevent that, and maintain their impressive record in this country.

There is, therefore, still a lot to play for, even if attention is attracted elsewhere.

In the spotlight

He has been one of the standout fast bowlers in the IPL over its last two seasons, but Harshal Patel's time in an India shirt hasn't been quite as fulfilling just yet. He has just come off a rib injury and a difficult series on unforgivingly flat pitches against Australia, so his recent lean-ish patch may not be a major cause for concern, but India would hope he'll find his best rhythm soon, because there's always significantly more pressure on the other quicks when Bumrah isn't around.

South Africa’s Tabraiz Shamsi is ranked No. 2 among T20I bowlers, but India's batters haven't seemed to know this when they've faced him. In five matches in and against India this

year, Shamsi has taken just one wicket (average 129.00) while conceding upwards of ten runs an over.

The thing about Shamshi’s left-arm wrist-spin is that a big wicket haul always seems to be around the corner. Could Sunday be his day?

Team news

India are likely to stick to a combination that is similar to the one that played in Thiruvananthapuram, with R Ashwin as one of their two spinners, but they could potentially push Pant up the order to give him more time in the middle.

India (probable): 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 KL Rahul, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Suryakumar Yadav, 5 Rishabh Pant (wk), 6 Dinesh Karthik, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Harshal Patel, 9 R Ashwin, 10 Deepak Chahar, 11 Arshdeep Singh.

With South Africa's squad staying back in India for three ODIs before they head to Australia, a spot of rest and rotation can be expected.

South Africa (possible): 1 Quinton de Kock (wk), 2 Temba

Bavuma (capt), 3 Rilee Rossouw, 4 Aiden Markram, 5 David Miller, 6 Tristan Stubbs, 7 Wayne Parnell/ Dwaine Pretorius, 8 Keshav Maharaj, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Anrich Nortje/Lungi Ngidi, 11 Tabraiz Shamsi.

Pitch and conditions

"It was hot yesterday at practice, man! It was really hot!" was India Coach Rahul Dravid's first reaction to being asked about the conditions during his pre-match press conference. "We're lucky the game is in the evening."

Lucky, yes, because a maximum of 36 degrees Celsius is forecasted for Sunday. But maybe they’re not so lucky, since rain is also expected - with a greater likelihood after 7pm.

The last T20I at this venue, in 2020, was rained off without a ball being bowled; and the one before that - the first at this stadium - was both low-scoring and one-sided, with Australia romping home with 27 balls remaining, after bowling India out for 118.

Dravid has suggested that the pitch for Sunday's game

"looks a good wicket", while Wayne Parnell, the South Africa allrounder, hadn't had the chance to have a close look before his press conference.

"This wicket, from what I've seen from the dressing room, looks about 22 yards," he said with the straightest of faces. "It looks slightly brown as well, from what I could see."

Quotes

"I think Harshal's a really mentally strong cricketer. He's a fantastic cricketer, and if you just look at his performances over the last two years, they've been absolutely phenomenal for the franchise that he plays in.

“Even in international cricket, for us he's bowled some really good spells. He's preparing really well, he's practising really hard. It can happen. He's also come off a little bit of an injury, and it takes a little bit of time to get used to it, but I thought he bowled a phenomenal last over against Australia in Hyderabad.

“Even the last over against South Africa at Trivandrum; at both Hyderabad and Trivandrum, he bowled fantastic

last overs. I think eight [seven] runs and seven [six] runs and he got Tim David's wicket; and in a tight game, in a close game, that can make a big difference," Rahul Dravid, who isn't worried about Harshal Patel's form, has said.

“I think - personally, from what I've watched over the last couple of months - I think he is probably one of the best T20 batters at the moment. He scores (runs from) 360 (degrees), which is very difficult for bowlers to try and defend. I think it's just about being strong and taking each ball as it comes.

“I think the other night [in Thiruvananthapuram], he played some really, really beautiful shots, but he was also lucky here and there; and maybe on a different night, that goes to hand. But having said that, he's certainly been a guy that I've really enjoyed watching over the last couple of months. He's certainly playing really, really good cricket," said Wayne Parnell, who was effusive in his praise for Suryakumar Yadav. (ESPN Cricinfo)

NZ women win second T20I against WI women

Action continued in New Zealand Women’s tour of West Indies with the White Fern ladies levelling the 5-match T20I series 1-1, thanks to a brilliant half-cen tury from Suzie Bates and ex cellent bowling from Hayley Jensen.

With the series now 1-1, there is more work to be done by both teams. The second game in the five match T20 series came to an end with the ladies in maroon failing to put up a formidable total.

In the chase, a first in nings total of 107-5 from the West Indies meant that the White Ferns would be chasing 108 for victory. Sophie Devine

was the first to go, for (8) with the score at 37-1. But the vis itors dug deep and, more so, batted deep, as the next wick et fell at 89-2 in 16.4 overs.

This was the prized wick et of Suzie Bates, who scored 54 off 61 balls, which included 6 boundaries. When Bates’s wicket fell, the West Indies women picked up two more quick wickets, as Amelia Kerr fell for 21 and Maddy Green was superbly run out. However, Georgia Plimmer (7) and Lauren Down (9) man aged to guide their side over the line with one ball remain ing.

Bowling for the West Indies, Karishma Ramharack took 1-23, Shakera Selman took 1-26, and Cherry-Ann Fraser took 1-13.

Earlier in the innings, the Windies women were strug gling to get things going. They lost Hayley Matthews (8) and Aaliyah Alleyne (13) within the first ten overs, but an ob durate Kyshona Knight came to the crease and contributed a fighting 42 off 48 balls. No other player was able to aid

Knight in her fightback, as the White Ferns bowled with precision and great discipline. Chinelle Henry (24) contrib uted the only other innings of substance as the ladies in ma roon closed out their innings

on 107-5.

Pick of the New Zealand bowlers was Hayley Jensen with 3-24, while Eden Carson chipped in with 2-12.

Action in this series will continue today from 13:00 hrs.

“It has been quite good”

SERVICE

Astrology and Spiritual Healer Pt. Mohan: +592-692-1009. If there is any problem in your life, he will get the solution. Please con tact spiritual healer, regarding health, love, business, husband and wife problems, etc. Address: Georgetown, Guyana.

Sir Clive Lloyd

Lloyd, who led the West Indies team to consecutive World Cup triumphs in 1975 and 1979, worked through out the season as a men tor for the Guyana Amazon Warriors, who lost the qual ifier 2 match to the Jamaica Tallawahs on Wednesday.

“It’s a mentoring role, and I’m quite happy. I get to have a lot of chats with the young guys, and so on,” said Lloyd on the Mason & Guest radio show on Tuesday.

30 GUYANATIMESGY.COMSUNDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2022 SCOREBOARD West Indies Women (20 ovs maximum) Hayley Matthews (c) c †Gaze b Jensen 8 Aaliyah Alleyne c Down b Carson 13 Kyshona Knight c Plimmer b Jensen 42 Chedean Nation lbw b Carson 10 Chinelle Henry b Jensen 24 Shabika Gajnabi not out 0 Extras (b 4, nb 1, w 5) 10 TOTAL 20 Ov (RR: 5.35) 107/5 Did not bat: Cherry-Ann Fraser, Rashada Williams †, Afy Fletcher, Shakera Selman, Karishma Ramharack Fall of wickets: 1-11 (Hayley Matthews, 3.4 ov), 2-38 (Aaliyah Alleyne, 8.3 ov), 3-58 (Chedean Nation, 12.5 ov), 4-89 (Kyshona Knight, 19.1 ov), 5-107 (Chinelle Henry, 19.6 ov) BOWLING O-M-R-W Fran Jonas 4-0-19-0 Hayley Jensen 4-0-24-3 Hannah Rowe 2-0-18-0 Eden Carson 4-0-12-2 Amelia Kerr 4-0-23-0 Sophie Devine 2-0-7-0 New Zealand Women (T: 108 runs from 20 ovs) Sophie Devine (c)c & b Ramharack 8 Suzie Bates b Selman 54 Amelia Kerr c †Williams b Fraser 21 Georgia Plimmer not out 7 Maddy Green run out (Henry) 0 Lauren Down not out 9 Extras (lb 3, nb 2, w 4) 9 TOTAL 19.5 Ov (RR: 5.44) 108/4 Did not bat: Hayley Jensen, Hannah Rowe, Isabella Gaze †, Eden Carson, Fran Jonas Fall of wickets: 1-37 (Sophie Devine, 9.1 ov), 2-89 (Suzie Bates, 16.6 ov), 3-91 (Amelia Kerr, 17.5 ov), 4-91 (Maddy Green, 17.6 ov) BOWLING O-M-R-W Chinelle Henry 4-0-21-0 Hayley Matthews 3-0-9-0 Karishma Ramharack 4-0-23-1 Shakera Selman 4-0-26-1 Afy Fletcher 2-0-13-0 Cherry-Ann Fraser 2.5-0-13-1 CLASSIFIED ADS Bus Service: Need a bus? Call us. Planning a Tour? Call us. Matthew’s Bus Service and Tours. Call or WhatsApp: 639-2663 or 673-2348. BUS SERVICE TOURS Tours: Planning a tour or planning a trip? Call Matthew’s Bus Service and Tours. Call or WhatsApp: 6392663 or 673-2348. WANTED Male and Female to work in factory. Apply to R.P’s Enterprise, Area ‘K’ Le Ressouvenir, ECD. Tel: 220-2818 Land in Richmond Housing Scheme, Essequibo, 50ft by 110ft. Asking Price 5.5 MIL. Tel: 6575574 & 629-6400 serious enqui ries only PROPERTY FOR SALE House and Land for Sale New Scheme, Zeelugt. Contact No: 643-8274 – Sir Clive Lloyd praises quality of cricket in CPL 2022

In regard to standout players from this year’s edi tion of the Hero CPL, Sir Clive, speaking from an in dividual perspective, said “not many new names” had impressed him.

“The people that are making runs and taking wickets are established play ers,” he added, before prais ing the overall level of crick et that was on display, and

the curators for the quality of pitches being used.

“I think it has been quite good. We had quite a few good games in Guyana. I must commend the cura tors for the work they’ve put in on the pitches, they’ve (pitches) played very well. The wickets have been good for stroke-play, and the crowds have enjoyed it as well. It’s been quite excit ing, and I’m sure that in the future it will continue to be that way,” he added.

Asked about advice he’d given to current West Indies skipper Nicholas Pooran ahead of the up coming ICC T20 World Cup tournament, Lloyd was brief in his response, say ing only, “I'm hoping that this captaincy thing is not restricting his play with the bat, because he’s a real tal ent. Hopefully, he'll come good on those harder pitch es.” (Sportsmax)

Karishma Ramharack bagged 1-23

Legendary Guyanese World Cup-winning cricket captain Sir Clive Lloyd has praised the level of cricket that was fea tured in the recently con cluded Hero Caribbean

Premier League 2022 tour ney.

By Brandon Corlette

Every team in every sporting activity in every part of the world has its ogre to confront. For the Jamaica Tallawahs, who finished fourth in the league stages of the Hero Caribbean Premier League tournament for 2022, but became deserving champions of that same tourney after defeating the Barbados Royals in a scintillating final game on Friday night, their ogre was disrespect, as in being considered the underdogs.

According to Tallawahs captain Rovman Powell, the team used that ‘disrespect’ as a motivation to win a third CPL title. Powell, who is also the West Indies vice-captain, noted that the guys were hungry to win.

"Adjectives cannot describe how I feel right now. We endured a lot of disrespect throughout the tournament, so to be here now is amazing. We used the ‘disrespect’ that we endured as motivation. We were hungry, the guys were very hungry," Powell said.

"I told them to hang in, and we have a lot of batters and we can ‘get it’. The first 100 that Brandon scored, it was in a losing cause, and so the guys felt really hurt that it was in a losing cause, but we told the guys that's what ‘big boy’ cricket is about. So, to see Brooks score a 100 the other night in a win was special."

Powell also noted that as

he continues to lead teams, he is gaining valuable experience. He has dedicated this win to the fans in Jamaica.

"I've captained a few teams and franchises before I captained Jamaica, so I've been learning. Sometimes I feel down and out because I'm human, but my family rallied around me.

“I wanna say a special thanks to the Guyanese supporters. After we beat Guyana, they could have easily turned on us, but we came out today and saw so many Guyanese supporting us,” he confessed.

“For the fans in Jamaica, you stayed with us through the dark times. This one is for you guys," he declared.

Meanwhile, the Hero of the Tournament: Brandon King, who scored 422 runs, has said he was happy to contribute and help his team win the tournament.

"You set goals for yourself before the tournament. Number one is to win the tournament, and we did that. I'm happy to finish with the most runs. The guys trust each other to go out there and carry their roles. Brooks came out and took control early, when I was struggling, but I was happy to be out there to help finish it off,” he said.

“I'm extremely happy that we won this year. There's no special formula, just work hard and believe in your abilities. Confidence goes a long way. The team is amazing. Everyone believes in each other."

Guyanese and West Indies Legend Shivnarine Chanderpaul has described the victory as fantastic for him, since this is the first major tournament he has coached and won. While he achieved a lot in his career, he has ranked this championship win as the apex of his achievements.

"We have a very good team, and we stepped up when we were called upon at the big times," Chanderpaul has said.

Legendary West Indies pace bowler Sir Curtly Ambrose has also said he is delighted with the win, since no one had given the Tallawahs a chance in this respect.

"No one gave us a chance, and here we are! Winners!" Sir Curtly declared.

Former Guyana Amazon Warriors skipper Chris Green, who played an instrumental role in his side’s win, especially at Providence, has described this win as special.

"Special! Special night! To come through the way we have on the back end, through thick and thin, is amazing," Green has said.

Table tennis team gunning for medals at 12th edition of South American Games

Table Tennis Player Natalie Cummings

The 12th edition of the South American Games commenced in Asuncion, Paraguay on Saturday, October 1st, 2022, and there are 16 Guyanese athletes representing the Golden Arrowhead. Present at the Opening Ceremony were Guyana’s Badminton contingent, comprising Priyanna and Narayan Ramdhani, Akili Haynes, Coach Naeem Haque and Chief-de-Mission Keavon Bess.

While Badminton is the first sport to spring into action, Table Tennis activities will commence on October 8th, and the Guyanese team are hoping to better their performance this time around.

Just two months ago, a number of firsts were achieved for Table Tennis in Guyana, as a team competed well at the 2022 Commonwealth Games held in Birmingham, England. Natalie Cummings had her name become a standout at those Games, as she helped Guyana reach the Round of 16 in the Women’s Doubles for the first time ever. Along with Olympian Chelsea Edghill, she broke into the Round of 16 in the Women’s doubles. Shemar Britton and Christopher Franklyn did likewise for Guyana in the Men’s Doubles.

Reflecting on their performance at those Games, held between July 28th and August 8th, Cummings expressed the eagerness to medal that their historic performances had triggered.

“It’s nice being the first, but I hope it’s not the last for us, because we haven’t been able to get a medal at Commonwealth,

and that’s something I’m hoping we’ll be able to (overcome) through investment and more preparation into the sport,” the Table Tennis player shared with this publication.

She added, “That’s my plea, and what the entire Guyana contingent has been pleading for: for more support for the Guyana team, in order to get to that medal round.”

Now that the South American Games have commenced, Cummings and other players have been given another opportunity to go for ‘the long haul’, and Cummings has highlighted how important it is to medal, and how the team intends to do so.

She posited, “We are not comfortable anymore with just having historic finishes. We just want to get that medal for ourselves and for our country.”

Speaking about their expectation to continuously improve their performances, she said, “We have the South American Games coming up; so, hopefully, with a lot more preparation than we had leading up to Commonwealth, we are able to secure a medal. We want a medal, historic performance is not it for us, we just want to medal! Just give us the support, and we’ll try to do that,” she assured.

The South American Games would run from October 1st to 15th, and Guyana would be represented by a 6-member table tennis team comprising Natalie Cummings, Chelsea Edghill, Priscilla Greaves, Shemar Britton, Christopher Franklin and Elishaba Johnson. They are being coached by Idi Lewis.

Tallawahs Head Coach Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Assistant Coach Sir Curtly Ambrose

King played a major role for the team, scoring more than 100 runs in a season on two occasions

Final game of Hero CPL 2022 competition…

Amazon Warriors inspire next generation through ExxonMobil engagement

Lifestories, motivational speeches, fun in the sun and overall unforgettable moments were on the cards on Tuesday, when the Guyana Amazon Warriors (GAW) interacted with the next generation of youth cricketers and athletes.

The engagement which was organized by ExxonMobil, fit perfectly into the Amazon Warriors’ annual effort to immerse themselves in charitable causes, especially surrounding chil

dren.

The ExxonMobil Guyana event sought to give the youngsters a chance to learn from their cricketing idols in a fun, interactive environment. The chil dren selected to attend hailed from vari ous schools around the country, cricket clubs and other organizations and was

hosted in the Marriott Hotel Parking Lot.

The initial panel set-up allowed the youngsters to quiz the cricketers about various aspects of life and the sport.

“The first disappointing call I received as a cricketer, it was when I was around 16,” Ronsford Beaton shared as he re counted one of his most disappointing experiences as a teen ager.

“I had my hopes up because then I did all the things that I need to do to prepare for the tournament. But when I received the call that I wasn’t selected, I was heartbroken.”

In a bid to enlighten the youngsters on how to deal with such, Beaton continued, “It was a sad feeling, but I overcame it as the days go by.”

Also opting to share valuable words of advice, was Saxacalli’s Keemo Paul.

“In life, there will be a lot of disappointments. There will be a lot of ups and downs, you know, life is never a smooth road but its how we deal with it and how you cope with it,” Paul openly shared.

“For me, I think family is important and I just want to en courage each and every one of you to just keep following your dreams, keep working hard, stay disciplined, stay grounded, and be humble always. No matter how far you reach in life, just try to stay as humble as possible and go step by step.”

Paul further stated, “When those disappointments come, just remember it’s not the end of the road.”

Following the verbal interaction concluded, it was time to hit the pitch in a mock-up cricket game. Additionally, the children also got the opportunity to take photos and get auto graphs from the GAW Players.

The amazon Warriors take a phot op with students from Queen’s College

“Cricket is much more than a game for us in Guyana, it is a passion, part of our culture and a unify ing force. As we celebrate “One Guyana”, the hosting of the CPL final will be an energis ing force. We are building a product that will be spectator-focused, integrated with our re gional partners for a global market. Cricket

Carnival is a fusion of entertainment and celebration that will be mind-blowing and unbelievably different from any other glob al cricketing event. We welcome all to the greatest celebration of music, pageantry, Caribbean vibes with a South American touch, and, of course, cricket played loud est.”

Onbehalf of the management, coach ing staff and players of the Guyana Amazon Warriors, I would like to welcome all the fans in our dear land of Guyana who will be coming out from today in numbers to fill our National Stadium in all our games – and those who could not get in because the tickets were all sold out with in a few days. In the ten years that the Hero T20 Caribbean Premier League (CPL) has been in existence, I can say – without any fear of being accused of exaggeration that you have been the most consistent in dem onstrating support for your team – and for CPL Cricket – in all of the territories.

And I repeat, the Guyana Amazon Warriors are your team and your vociferous support of your team in and out of the sta dium has proven to be their secret weapon – providing at crucial moments that rush of adrenalin that takes teams across the line from the agony of defeat to the thrill of victo ry. Your Guyana Amazon Warriors have re sponded by being the most consistent team in the last decade. And they have become known as a team that never say die.

This year, our season was bookmarked between the end of the month of August – the month we have commemorated as “Freedom Month” for more than a century and a half – and the end of September, which is the month we celebrate “Amerindian Heritage Month” in honour of our First Peoples. During that time, we West Indians have marked that freedom and indigenous ness by achieving success in several fields –but nowhere else more unique than in the culture we evolved in celebrating life itself. Maybe it is because, more than most other

A Message by Hon. Brigadier (Retired)

Mark Phillips, Prime Minister of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana

Guyana is a proud host of the highly-anticipated finals of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) 2022, the domestic Twenty20 cricket league played here in the West Indies.

We warmly welcome the teams, players, coaches, and their fans for the final leg of the tournament. The first game in Guyana is set for Wednesday, September 21, and will climax with the finals on Friday, September 30.

An exciting brand of cricket is ex pected from the six teams partici pating in the tournament namely, Jamaica Tallawahs, St Kitts and Nevis Patriots, Barbados Royals, Trinbago Knight Riders, St Lucia Kings, and, of course, the Guyana Amazon Warriors.

This is the 10th season of the CPL, but the first time that the finals are being held in Guyana. We anticipate an electrifying atmosphere from the wave of fans who will fill seats at the National Stadium in Providence to witness the games.

My fervent hope, like many Guyanese, is for our Amazon Warriors to draw inspiration from the games be ing staged in Guyana to finally reward their passionate and loyal fans by win ning the elusive CPL championship on home soil.

Notwithstanding, hosting the CPL is a special moment for Guyana.

As a result of the vision and invest ments of our Government, led by Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali, President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, the CPL finals were secured, particularly

given the socio-economic development benefits that cricket offers.

The CPL games in Guyana are paired with Cricket Carnival, a fun, vibrant and colourful medley of ac tivities held under the “One Guyana” theme.

This is the first of three annual CPL finals and Cricket Carnivals to be hosted by Guyana.

The CPL and the carnival events mean a lot to Guyana as our unwav ering drive is to bring people togeth er and to unify the country. There is no better way to achieve this than through sports and culture.

Both events fulfil the Government’s overall mission of promoting Guyana

as a top-tier international destination for investment, tourism, entertain ment, sports, food, and cultural activi ties.

There is something for everyone to enjoy, including music festivals, food shows, concerts, competitions, and or ganised tours.

More importantly, the Government’s intention through the events is to invest in its people as a springboard that will foster economic opportunities for every Guyanese.

In advance of the CPL, we noted that hotels were booked solid and nu merous economic opportunities have opened up for bed and breakfast ac commodations, vendors, restaurants, bars, transportation services, and tour operators.

Guyana is rapidly evolving as an oil and gas market, and our Government has mapped out a transformational de velopment trajectory that will ensure the diversification of our economy by using the gains from this natural re source for countrywide development.

We will continue to build out many new pillars so that our econo my will be resilient, strong and sus tainable. Combined, CPL and the Cricket Carnival is one such avenue Government has adopted as a unifying catalyst for economic growth.

On behalf of the Government and the people of Guyana, I am pleased to extend a warm welcome to thousands of visitors from across the globe, par ticularly our Caribbean Region.

places, our history has made us appreciate life more, since it could have been so easily taken from us. This year, we have launched a unique Cricket Carnival to bring it all to gether!

Cricket has been an integral part of Caribbean life, and as I have said in previ ous years, T20 might have been launched elsewhere, but its joie de vivre and all its synonyms – cheerfulness, cheer, light-heart edness, merriment, glee, gladness, happi ness, joy, joyfulness, joyousness, delight, pleasure, high spirits, good spirits, good hu mour, jollity, jolliness, hilarity, mirth, jovi ality, exuberance, elation, exultation, eu phoria, jubilation – declare it was “born” in the West Indies.

Once again, on behalf of your Guyana Amazon Warriors I ask that you join me as I say with all sincerity:

GO WARRIORS! – Let us celebrate the joy of Caribbean Cricket!!

“T

he 10th anniversary finals in Guyana will be the biggest finals the CPL has ever had. We’ll have sellout crowds to all the games, there’s going to be an extraordinary atmosphere. As I said, that coming togeth er of Carnival and cricket will never be seen better than in Guyana this year. So, for us it is all about, you know, enjoy ing what’s ahead. I think it’s going to be a phenomenal few days in Guyana, and I hope all the fans, both watching at home and in the stadium, will enjoy the experience.”

Guyanese Peters relishing experience with CPL marketing team

Afterworking at Digicel for 14 years, Guyanese Delon Justin Peters is enjoying working with the biggest party in sport, Caribbean Premier League. The businessman, who is also a sponsorship officer at CPL said he has learned valuable lessons during his journey from Digicel to CPL.

Peters had enjoyed working at Digicel but the party atmosphere in CPL and the fans are a joy. “Loving it. It is the best job I think I have had next to Digicel. I have worked at Digicel for quite a few years, so we were accus tomed to getting stuff done, but now being integrated into the sport, into cricket it is even more fun.”

“While I do not follow the games per se, it is always fun to see the people and enjoy themselves, and me being a big part of it, I enjoyed that,” Peters said.

The Guyanese, who is often spotted on television presenting cheques to fans of dif ferent CPL matches, gave an insight into his job with CPL. “I am one of the sponsorship officers at CPL, and our main focus is to make sure that the sponsor’s activations are prop erly integrated. That the sponsors get the right experience from their partnership,” Peters disclosed.

Equipped with 14 years of experience at Digicel, Peters was familiar with how things are done on an international level, through television.

“Coming from a Digicel background, I am familiar with how things are done internationally, but from a sporting perspective, I think I understand more sponsorship in its entirety, and then sports sponsorship, and then I under stand how TV works because some of us are sitting at home watching these things happening on TV, but we don’t know how these things work.”

“My role allows me to understand how it works when it works. The general knowledge in marketing in its entirety,” Peters explained.

How do you feel about Guyana hosting its 1st CPL Final in the tournament’s 10 year history?

SEON BOVELL

Response: Cricket is one of the most popular games in a majority of the countries. Born in Guyana, the immense interest of cricket has made it popular in many nations where it has become more of a passion, a dream and a part of their blood stream. Great stalwarts like Brian Lara, Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, Vivian Richards, Greg Chappell and a long list of popular cricketers have added greatness to the game, not to forget Sir Don Bradman. Though it takes on the nerves in nerve-clinching games, the game of cricket is itself a stress reliever and a great entertainment for millions of fans the world over. “Most games are skin deep, but cricket goes to the bone” is the saying that epitomises the fervour of cricket. Whether you win or lose the game or it ends in a tie, it is the game of cricket that always wins. So, to have the CPL finals here in Guyana for the first time is an immense step for our country as a whole. It will help showcase to the tourists what Guyana has to offer and make them want to return.”

SHIVANAND HARIPRASAD

Response: “When the tickets came out, you could have seen the crowds on the first day. As soon as the finals tickets were released, everything was sold out, so everyone is ready for this season and I’m sure for the next three years as well the same thing will happen.”

DELICIA GEORGE

Response: You know after years of it keeping in Trinidad, it feels as though we have accomplished a lot this year by securing the CPL Finals. Most Guyanese will get to step foot into the experience. It is a proud moment for all Guyanese.

PERNELL CHRISTIE

Response: To have the CPL Finals hosted here in Guyana was long overdue given the support that the Guyanese people show to cricket as a whole and not just the Amazon Warriors. I’m sure we will come out in our numbers regardless of which two teams will be in the Finals because at the end of the day, we all represent West Indies Cricket.

AREEB ALI

Response: It feels amazing. Cricket is such a great sport here in the country and we rally behind our teams through and through. Guyanese thirst for games to be played here so to have the finals being hosted is a dream come through. The Guyana Amazon Warriors have been to the final so many times and not won so maybe now they’re getting that last ingredient which is to play in their backyard and win.

SUNIL RAMLALL

Response: “I’m excited and I know my Guyanese brothers and sisters are ecstatic. You can have a look for yourself, the tickets that were released sold out a few hours after they became available. That tells you something, after a twoyear pause of CPL due to the pandemic, Guyana cricket crazed! We have the play-offs and finals for the next three years to go hand in hand with the Cricket Carnival and we all know the Warriors fans always think to themselves, “this year is we year!”

Response: “I feel an immeasurable amount of pride that the CPL finals are being hosted here after so many years. To be able to go and enjoy the sport itself with other fans in such an exciting atmosphere is honestly incredible. It would be even more amazing if Guyana makes it to the finals, because I would be able to support my favourite team in person. A victory in Guyana’s home turf would be poetic and iconic and I feel like this is the perfect time for us to win the title.”

Response: “As a sports fan to have the second most-watched T20 league final being hosted in my country is amazing – moreover, in its 10th anniversary, definitely is momentous. It’s investment in sports tourism for our country. I hope it’s a signal of the beginning of major investment in sports for Guyana.”

LAKANAND SINGH

Response: It is a wonderful feeling as a patriotic Guyanese citizen to have the finals being hosted, in a franchise that has reached the finals in almost every CPL tournament thus far. So, as a Guyanese fan it has been a long time coming to have the tournament hosted here and hopefull this is our lucky year.

VARSHA BOODRAM

Response: “Truly a great feeling. The Guyanese fans certainly welcome this inaugural event and look forward to the excitement of it. It will also be a memorable one if Warriors finally win on their home turf.”

ISHAKA JACKMAN

JENNIFER SAM

Scenes from Guyana Amazon Warriors home games at Providence

CPL 2022: Warriors, Royals, Kings and Tallawahs into playoffs

Knight Riders were knocked out of the Caribbean Premier League for the first time in the tournament’s ten-year history. Guyana Amazon Warriors handed TKR the knockout punch at Providence on a super Saturday to storm into the play-offs while Barbados Royals, St Lucia Kings, and Jamaica Tallawahs are the oth er teams into the final rounds.

Trinbago

The Warriors had a slow start to the season, suffering defeats away from home, but upon return to its home turf, the team dominated with clinical wins, especially against one of the most anticipated and talked about matches on Saturday evening.

During the home games, the magnificent Shai Hope and Afghanistan’s Rahmanulla Gurbaz scored half-centuries while other players chipped in.

Shimron Hetmyer has chipped in with runs on a consis tent basis, but he was not as dominant throughout the sea son. Leading the team for the first time, Hetmyer continues to learn from every game, and with the addition of Gurbaz and Shakib, the Warriors were in full flow at the crunch time of the season.

The dangerous Odean Smith who has often come and ex ploded at the end, has a strike rate of over 200 this season with the bat, while Keemo Paul has also chipped in at the end. Opener Chanderpaul Hemraj is due for a big score and that innings might come in the final games.

From a bowling perspective, the veteran Warrior, Imran Tahir has 10 wickets while Smith has seven wick

ets. Tabriz Shamsi, who departed for international duties, had claimed eight wickets in the five matches he played. Gudakesh Motie has been economical in his outings bowl ing some death overs, while the young Junior Sinclair has shown great promise.

“Fantastically well done by the boys. Don’t have enough words to express how great they were. Really really proud of them. Gurbaz came in and felt at home really. Back-to-back fifties - we can see he’s comfortable now,” Hetmyer said after the win against TKR.

Barbados Royals, the form team

The Barbaos Royals have shown dominance from the in ception of CPL 2022. Led by David Miller, and Kyle Mayers, Royals came and conquered. Mayers led the batting with more than 300 runs while South African trio, Miller, Quinton de Kock, and Corbin Bosch showed class with the bat. However, the trio departed for international duties, but Azam Khan stepped up when the team needed him.

In the bowling department, Jason Holder and Obed McCoy are star performers while Afghanistan ace spinner, Mujeeb Ur Rahman has been a threat to opponents.

The Royals who struggled to qualify in previous seasons, changed their management and looked like a stronger team this season.

Tallawahs flexing muscle

have carried the Jamaica Tallawahs this season.

Powell has been racking up half centuries while King was all royalty at Providence when he scored that brilliant century against the warriors. Raymon Reifer has been a silent contributor and he was also rewarded with a West Indies call-up at the 2022 T20 World Cup.

Pakistan’s duo Imad Wasim and Mohammad Amir has also been outstanding with the ball all season, impressing the Assistant Coach, and legend, Sir Curtly Ambrose.

Kings inspired by home support and Sammy

In the King’s camp, former West Indies Captain, Daren Sammy now head coach for the team has been an inspira tion to the team. The home support in St Lucia was impres sive as the batting of Johnson Charles, who has more than 300 runs this season.

Captain Faf du Plessis was impressive with a fantastic knock of a century at Providence and he continues to lead his troops well.

David Wiese has contributed all-around for his side while Alzarri Joseph has been a superstar with the ball. He has also been bowling at a serious pace this season. The four teams have shown differences in approach, and this sets up a close contest in the playoffs.

Now that the stage is set for the final showdown, the fans are hoping that their team goes through to the final which is set for Friday, September 30 at 19:00h.

West Indies players Brandon King and Rovman Powell

Guyana Amazon Warriors Barbados Royals

Jamaica Tallawahs

Lucia

Realising the CPL dream, 10 years down the line

By Jemima Holmes

Tenyears, to many, can seem like a very long time; but when you’re enjoying your favourite sport on a sunny day in the Caribbean, with some of the world’s most explosive talents waving back from the bound ary, your favourite tunes blasting loudly from several speakers, the prettiest cheerleaders grooving to the beat and of course, mouth-wa tering delicacies and drinks flowing freely, 10 years can pass ever so quickly.

And even for the most fanatical of partygoers or sport lovers, a constant factor every year for 10 years can get monotonous, bor ing, and dreary. Not the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) though.

Ticket sales for this year’s Hero CPL final in Guyana is testament to not only the tourna ment’s ability to keep the Caribbean engaged, but to the growth that a particular group hoped for, 10 years ago.

“The key thing for us was to differentiate and our key proposition was always well, what we’re looking to do is combine cricket with carnival. You know, we wanted to make sure that from a fan perspective, fans could come and watch our games – obviously enjoy great cricket, cricket always had to be the primary driver, but also have a good time, cre ate an atmosphere and a vibe that was truly Caribbean and the Caribbean people really bought into,” Hero CPL Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Pete Russell said about the vision of the tournament.

But things weren’t always as good as they are now, tick ets didn’t always go like hot cakes.

“The first game that we played, which was in Barbados, which was Barbados play ing St Lucia and actually four days before the game, we’d lit erally sold probably 200 tick ets, something like that. So, it wasn’t looking great. But we had a fantastic surge three days before and there was huge amount of marketing ef fort, lots of innovation was created by spon sors and ourselves,” Russell recalled.

“And I remember just looking at that first game, it was packed, it was absolutely packed and the vibe and the atmosphere was just amazing. And that sort of set the tone really for what was to come.”

Although for most, the Hero CPL is all about the game and ensuing entertainment, the work behind the scenes to produce the “Biggest Party in Sport” has been, and still is, arduous. Being an annual event, the CPL’s most difficult task is to keep fans engaged for 11 months, each year, when their tournament wasn’t in action.

Russell explained to this publication, “That is a challenge, of course, but I think that the key is to make the tournament as good as it can be. So, everyone’s experience when they go to a CPL game has to be I want more of that. I want to go back, I want to want to be part of a CPL game in the future. Because that’s obviously, you know, how you get peo ple to return in future years, but you have to give them not only value for money but a great entertainment experience.”

Sharing some of the entity’s secrets, Russell credited not only CPL’s motivation, but the role that franchises play.

“The one thing that I would say is what we’re very conscious of – and it’s a little bit like how NFL do it – you don’t want to saturate the market. You don’t want to be too much, do too much. You want everyone to have a great time, but at the end of it, want more.”

He said with a smile, “But, of course, what’s been fantastic over the 10 years is that there’s been great rivalries created within teams and between players across those teams, so, it is all about balancing.”

Touching on the CPL’s six franchises, Russell said: “The teams have learned over the years how to deliver on the pitch and off the pitch. So, there’s a huge amount that goes into it. And we’re very grateful for the team owners that we now have who we believe are second to none in terms of world cricket.”

Now, where would the CPL be without its sponsors? Before the famous Hero motor cycle was posted up in stadiums across the Caribbean, there were bottles of Limacol be ing distributed, right alongside tastes of El Dorado’s special brews and Republic Bank’s fan stand – a perfect picture of support.

Russell figures the CPL would be close to

we’ve had,” the CPL CEO went on to add.

Of course, by now the cat is out the bag; Guyana

Cricket Carnival, that in some ways can be seen as the celebration of CPL’s milestone. Ten years ago, the fusion of carnival and crick et was nothing but a vision, now it will engulf entertainment spots in Guyana.

“Well, His Excellency, the President has been a huge fan of CPL really from the early days and he’s always been very keen and obviously instrumental in in terms of getting the finals to Guyana. But what he was clear about was al ways to make sure that that carnival atmosphere, the car nival side of things was cre ated not just in the cricket ground but outside it,” Russell said in talking about Guyana “bringing to life” that dream.

Between the first final and the Cricket Carnival, Guyana is truly living the CPL dream.

Back in 2013, before the CPL even began, GAW Chairman Dr Ranjisinghi “Bobby” Ramroop had shared, “We believe in the transfor mative potential of CPL for the Caribbean Region. Not only does it promise to com pletely rejuvenate and revit alise cricket in the Caribbean, it has the potential to provide a tremendous economic and social boost as well.”

10 years on and truer words…

lost without the corporate boost.

“I mean, bluntly put, if you don’t have sponsors, you don’t have a tournament. They are the lifeblood from a financial per spective. So, you know, they’re very important, but, of course, you know, they don’t do it just out of largess, they do it be cause there’s a value to them to their business es and obvious ly, how they’re able to interact with their cus tomers.”

“We’re very proud of all the relationships

CPL CEO Pete Russell

The Hetmyer-led

GAW team is equipped with balance and skill

The Hetmyer-led GAW team are equipped with balance and skill

Shimron Hetmyer leads the Guyana Amazon Warriors into bat tle in the 2022 Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL).

The former West Indies U-19 World Cup-winning Captain has a team equipped with balance and great skill. In the batting department, Hetmyer is expected to play a major role while the experienced overseas pros Paul Stirling, Colin Ingram, and Henrich Klaasen offer firepower.

GAW batting in focus

Hetmyer has 145 T20 matches under his belt and 2784 runs. He has an average of 26.26 and a healthy strike rate of 132.5. With 15 half-centuries and one century, the ultratalented Hetmyer will be a prize scalp for any opposition. He will remember his U-19 World Cup glory, and will have intentions of leading the Warriors to a title win at home.

Aggressive Irish opener Paul Stirling has been in red-hot form in 2022. The experienced opener has 306 T20 match es under his belt and 7628 runs. He has a strike rate of 142, with three centuries and 49 half-centuries in the T20

format. His experience and skill will certainly boost the Warriors’ chances of winning 2022 CPL.

South Africa’s wicket-keeper batsman Henrich Klaasen has played in 124 T20s and has 2335 runs, averaging 28. He has a healthy strike rate of 136.4 and having played in T20 tournaments around the globe, he is expected to shine bright in Warriors kit. Colin Ingram, another overseas pro, has 317 T20 caps with 7721 runs. Ingram, who is no strang er to the CPL, having played for Trinbago Knight Riders, has four centuries in this format and 47 half-centuries. His strike rate of 137.6 will certainly boost the middle order.

First-choice Guyanese opener Chandrapaul Hemraj, who scored a majestic century against Barbados Royals in CPL, entered this tournament in serious form. Hemraj has 33 T20s under his belt with 730 runs. He will be aiming to extend consistency and return to the West Indies colours.

West Indies’ number 1 One-Day International batsman, Shai Hope has been eager to strengthen his shorter format credentials. The very classy batsman played 54 T20s and has 979 runs with three fifties in the format. Given there is a chance of players being unavailable, Hope bats at the top of the order, a position he batted in the past for Barbados and the West Indies.

West Indies Test Vice Captain Jermaine Blackwood pro vides that balance to the middle order once the opportuni ty arises. He has played 27 T20 matches and has only 357 runs, but the Jamaican batsman with three Test centuries is capable of producing more.

Tahir leads versatile bowling group

Imran Tahir ages like fine wine. The 43-year-old vet eran has played 362 match es and has 453 wickets with best bowling figures of 5-23. He has a bowling average of 19.78, an economy rate of 6.9 and a strike rate of 12. Simply amazing. With 10 four-wick et hauls and three five-wick et hauls under his belt, Tahir has been a handful for all teams at the Hero CPL.

left-arm wrist spinner, has 195 matches to his name and 223 wickets. He has an average of 22.3, an economy rate of 7.28, and five four-wicket hauls.

Gudakesh Motie continues to climb the ranks, having made his international debut this year. He had a good de but season with the Warriors last year and was among the players retained. With seven T20s in his blooming career and eight wickets, Motie’s economy rate of 6.6 has shown his ability to bowl to big players and keep them quiet. His Albion clubmate, Veerasammy Permaul is also with the Warriors this season. He has played 89 T20s and has 61 wickets. Having shown his skills to bowl in the powerplay, Permaul has an impressive economy rate of 6.95.

Ronsford Beaton, Keemo Paul, Romario Shepherd, and Odean Smith are the seam bowlers for the GAW. Beaton, arguably the fastest of the lot, has 48 matches under his belt and has 42 wickets. He has best bowling figures of 4-9, and after remodelling his action, he will be hungry to show case his pace.

Smith and Shepherd, who were the top wicket-takers in the 2021 CPL, are hungry for more success. The West Indies all-rounders who also have prowess with the bat play im portant roles for Warriors. Smith has played in 50 T20s and has 55 wickets. He has best bowling figures of 4-30 at an av erage of 25.

Shepherd has 65 wickets in 56 matches at 22.7 with best bowling figures of 4-13 and an economy rate of 9. His bat ting strike rate of 153 and high score of 72* adds that bal ance to the Warriors team. The returning Paul, a son of the soil, has played in 81 T20s and has 70 wickets to his name. He is aiming to stay fit and focused to help Warriors clinch the championship at home. He is also among the few bowl ers in T20 cricket to claim a five-wicket haul. His best of 5-15 shows his quality.

Meanwhile, the emerging players, Matthew Nandu and Junior Sinclair are expected to show their talent when giv en an opportunity. Nandu is a West Indies U-19 top-order batsman, who scored a century against PNG in the recent World Cup in the Caribbean. The young Sinclair is a ver satile cricketer, who bowls off-spin and bats right-hand. electric fielder and announced himself at the senior stage, when he dominated the Guyana Harpy Eagles trial matches with his off-spin.

uphor ic scenes took

over Warner Park Stadium on Sunday, September 4, as the Trinbago Knight Riders Women rev elled in the team’s first Massy Women’s Caribbean Premier League (CPL) victory and a landmark achieve ment for past, current, and future female cricket ers across the Region.

Three years ago, the Hero CPL made its first attempt at including the Region’s female cricketers in the “Biggest Party in Sport”. In 2019, the League tested the waters with a twoteam T10 tournament, hosted solely in Trinidad and Tobago.

While the participating teams had their own spon sors, that tournament was nothing close to what the CPL would initiate as part of its 10th anniversary cel ebrations in 2022.

“Of course, you’ve got the Women’s CPL, which for me is going to be great because it’s the first time we’ve obviously done it in its franchise for mat,” Hero CPL Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Pete Russell had shared at the onset.

The franchise tournament was intended for more than just inclusion purposes, however, but rather as an opportunity to ignite the women’s game in the Caribbean Region.

Russell explained, “That’s where we see a growth opportu nity for the sport across the Region. We have a huge fan base; we’ve got a very large number of women and girls who come and watch the games. So, hopefully, by seeing women in action that will encourage them to go and play the game too.”

It is safe to say that after the conclusion of the women’s tournament, that vision is slowly being realised. Ranging from Quiana Joseph’s all-round heroics to get the Barbados Royals into the WCPL final, Deandra Dottin’s lone campaign for the Trinbago Knight Riders in said final, or the bravery of Shabika Gajnabi and Cherry-Ann Fraser as they put Guyana Amazon Warriors Women into positions of power, the WCPL was the perfect showcase for the talent of regional women.

From the players’ perspective, the Massy WCPL has been able to achieve all that it set out to do.

WCPL: The key to transforming the Women’s game

E“I think the whole reason and a lot of im portance in this tournament, is definitely the growth of young players, and I think the more young players we could have coming through a system like this, the better it’s go ing to be for West Indies cricket on a whole,” Barbados Royals and West Indies Women’s Captain Hayley Matthews shared about the potential of the tournament.

She added, “Obviously, we’re going to want young players developing, break out in tournaments like these and come into the West Indies set-up and, hopefully, on to the international level.”

Even further, Matthews believes that the inclusion of female international stars will do well to lend to the goal of bettering young regional talent.

Matthews related, “So, I think getting the opportunity to play with players like Chloe Tryon, the Suné Lusses and these very experienced players from overseas, I think the young players could hope fully pick their brains a bit, take the opportunity to try to learn from them.

“And hopefully, we’ll be able to have them progress a bit quicker than just being in a domestic set-up.”

Former West Indies Women’s Captain and Captain of the Guyana Amazon Warriors (GAW) Women, Stafanie Taylor wholly agrees.

“Hopefully, we could definitely give some young faces op portunity ‘cause sometimes it’s not all about winning, but also improve other players and I think that’s what you want,” Taylor shared.

“We have some young players in the group and we’ll defi nitely want to give them the opportunity on the stage, to show case what they could do,” the GAW Captain went on to relate.

The vision was clear and the execution, even better. It may take another 10 years, but the WCPL is sure to bring new, ex citing and refreshing talent to the West Indies Women.

Trinbago Knight Riders Women lifted the inaugural Massy WCPL trophy

Shabika Gajnabi and Cherry-Ann Fraser were among some of the exciting female talents on display

aspiring to be a top-notch venue

…MAJOR WORKS ON THE HORIZON

By TimoThy Jaikarran

The Caribbean Premier League (CPL) will be coming to Guyana and the ex citement is in the air. To add some more icing on the cake, the grand finale will also be held here. For the Everest Cricket Club, lo cated at Carifesta Avenue, this means that it will be used as a practice venue for the games which will be held at Providence Stadium.

President of the Club, Manzoor Nadir is ex tremely proud of this accomplishment as the club is taking the right strides in becoming a top-notch venue.

In a comment, he said, “The executive and members and I, yeah, a few years ago, decid ed that we have to take the club to the high est level in terms of its facilities where sport, recreation and the com fort of members are con cerned. And in this re gard, we had embarked and we have a pro gramme to upgrade all of our facilities to what we consider to be good inter national standards. This is a programme that saw us invest in our facilities for our people and also in vest in the facilities that will improve the comfort for our members. What are those in particular? We have built a very nice lounge – what we call the Baroda Lounge because the Baroda Bank gave us the resources to start our project. Our clubhouse

status, and we have a full report on that which we are now work ing to implement. The facilities for our patrons, not just the members, have tremendously improved our stands, we have excellent wash room facilities which exist for visi tors who come to watch a game.. an ordinary game at Everest.”

The Everest President further related that the club has worked assiduously to improve and keep the grounds. He boasted that the pitch was in tip-top shape and they have invested in a broadcast box, which is equipped with fibre-optic Internet facilities. He explained that there has been a lot that the

has gone through significant improvement in terms of its renovation to accommodate our guests. We have invested a tremendous amount of resources in preparing for safety is sues as a club. We have a brand-new metal fire escape. We asked the fire department to give us a review of our occupational safety and fire

club has done in the last 14 months and there is more to come.

“I must say that all of the work that we have embarked on [paid] not only the club div idends but also brought recognition to Guyana as a whole when the ICC [International Cricket Council ]-Cricket West Indies team visited in September of 2021. They were look

ing for two broadcast venues for cricket, in order for Guyana to qualify to host the ICC U-19 matches. We were very honoured that the ICC said that Everest is almost there to be a broadcast venue. We had to do a few oth er things which we gladly consented to do to bring us up to par and these were things like raising our northern sightscreen by four feet. So that when the batsman from the southern end is looking to North, there is enough cover age with black screen. We had to mount bars on top of those screens and run the electri cals to house the cameras for live broadcast. We also had to put in place additional wash rooms and urinals for the players, and we had to have at least two showers, two toilets, two urinals, and two hand sinks in both dressing rooms,” he shared.

Nadir also shared that a lot of work has gone into the venue and its improvements, something which he is proud of. He went on to share that aside from the ICC U-19 match es, the club has hosted the regional women’s tournament and other regional matches. He divulged that while at most times, other ven ues were unplayable, at Everest because of the work they continuously do, the club was able to provide facilities for training and they match the highest level, as the GCB Harpy Eagles had used the club’s facilities for train ing prior to their departure earlier this year

for the regional four-day tourna ment. As it relates to the club be ing chosen as one of the practice venues for CPL 2022, Nadir said that the club was extremely hon oured to be chosen.

“When Operations Director Michael Hall visited, he said Everest was a no-brainer, he felt so proud, with almost an instan taneous approval of the facility. But we know we have to do much more and for CPL, we are putting facilities in place which will stay in place, such as laundering tow els; when our sports people come, they can have a shower. We have a full kitchen at Everest: every thing we provide in terms of eat ing is provided on site and that kitchen is going to be expanded. We do have some concern with the pitch, as we saw in the Bangladesh series at Providence, we saw quite a bit of negative comments and that is because of the inclement weather, we had to cover the pitch. So, Everest will now have to look at bringing in the roll-on covers, that will put the tarpaulin directly on to the surface, but give breathing space between the tarpaulin and the pitch,” Nadir stated.

Going forward, he clarified that the club’s intention was to add more pitches on the square while expanding the field, so the northern boundary will go 40 feet to the north and the eastern boundary will go 30 feet to the east, which will add a tremendous amount of space. Nadir also shared that they will also be lengthening the pitches, which will require the club to take the square 10 feet to the north as there is little buffer zones between the stands and the boundaries.

“One of our prides at Everest is our hybrid power system that was installed and we don’t want to boast, but we will proudly say that Everest is, by far, the only club that has a sig nificant amount of energy consumption com ing from solar generation. So, we are looking at the environment, we’re looking at the club’s own contribution to development,” he said.

Everest Cricket Club President Manzoor Nadir

EVEREST

CPL's newcomer Paul Stirlingenjoying Caribbean atmosphere

The Caribbean Premier League (CPL) offers great vibes and an electric atmosphere. The general unique culture of the different Caribbean countries is often relished by the overseas players.

For Irishman Paul Stirling, he is relishing the different Caribbean countries in this, his maiden stint in the CPL. He is certainly enjoying the tournament, despite having a slow start. The 32-year-old, who has played in more than 300 T20 matches around the globe, said he enjoyed St Kitts and the general atmosphere.

When asked about the impact he is hoping to make, Stirling said he aimed to score runs at a fast rate. “I think just come here and score runs at a good rate. You have to weigh up every condition and speaking to the teammates, the conditions change in each island, not dramatically, but a little bit. Coming here to St Lucia, there was extra bounce and pace, so a few things like that, I heard so many good things about the competition, so I am really enjoying it,” Stirling said.

Historically, the Amazon Warriors are known for making the play-offs but not crossing the final hurdle. However, Stirling is confident of the group of players. “They seem to be do ing a lot of things right, which is showing, going to the finals each time, so they are desper ate to get one step further and win it this year. All you can do is keep putting yourselves in those positions, and eventually you will get across the line,” Stirling said.

The aggressive Irish opener has been in red-hot form in 2022. The experienced opener has 306 T20 matches under his belt and 7628 runs. He has a strike rate of 142, with three centuries and 49 half-centuries in the T20 format. His experience and skill will certainly boost the Warriors’ chances of winning the 2022 CPL.

Paul Stirling in the nets for Amazon Warriors in St Lucia (Brandon Corlette photos)