Guyana Times Epaper - Wednesday, September 28, 2022

Public

Ministry

No

squatting areas

recognised

Croal

Wanted Guyanese stabbed to death in Suriname

$90M

Electric

collides

Construction

No new squatting areas will be recognised – Croal …over 3000 persons in Region 3 to receive titles

New squatting ar eas will not be recognised by the Housing and Water Ministry, as efforts move apace to issue titles for some of the current areas where this is an issue.

Housing Minister Collin Croal expressed during a recent housing drive that parallel to Government’s

progress in land allocation has been efforts to distrib ute titles. Pursuing a robust housing campaign, he stat ed, will ensure that there is no need for squatting.

However, he posi tioned Government’s stance against squatting, adding that new squatting areas will not be recognised.

“Whether we’re in

Success, we have to do the right thing. Whether we’re in Amelia’s Ward, we have to do the right thing. But we can’t just believe we will take anybody’s piece of land, make it our own and then believe like if we have a God-given right to assume what we don’t own.”

“We have also taken on the additional task of en suring that like what we’re doing in other parts of the country, is to fix this bug bear issue of a number of irregular settlements and squatting…We will work with all areas but we will not be recognising any new ones. We recognise what we met and if it can be regular ised,” the Housing Minister postulated.

Just for Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), 45 squatting areas have been identi fied; some of which will be regularised. For this year,

over 400 titles have already been issued. This addition al work, he added, has been undertaken with minimal staff increase.

“Many of those will be regularised. Not all. We have done the assessment. But when we’re finished with those 45, will see over 3000 persons being able to own their own home by a ti tle,” Croal told residents of Region Three.

Croal was keen to note that in some instances, squatters protest the relo cation to another area when approached by the Minister. Notwithstanding, infra structural works take pre cedence and they will have to move.

“Everybody wants to oc cupy the space but nobody wants to move so the road can go. Similarly, if you’re on the sea defence and for obvious purposes, you can not be regularised, then we

will work with you because you have to move.”

Earlier this month, over a dozen squatters in Annandale, on the East Coast of Demerara (ECD), had to be relocated due to their proximity to the sea defence. Another 60 house holds have already been regularised in one section of the Annandale squatting area. Those titles have al ready been distributed to

the residents there.

A few days before, some 46 families at Cameron Dam on the West Bank of Demerara were allocat ed lands at Lust-en-Rust, Canal Number One Polder, WBD. Cameron Dam has been earmarked for road networking and other in frastructural development, and as such, relocating these families was neces sary. (G12)

Housing Minister Collin Croal addressing residents of Region Three

BRIDGE OPENINGS

The Demerara Harbour Bridge will be closed to vehicular traffic on: Wednesday, Sept 28 – 04:00 – 05:30h and Thursday, Sept 29 – 10:00 – 11:30h.

IMF lauds Guyana’s fiscal policies to stabilise economy

…urges continued fiscal reforms, prudent management

Wednesday, Sept 28 – 05:30h – 07:00h and Thursday, Sept 29 – 06:10h – 07:40h.

FERRY SCHEDULE

The Berbice Bridge will be closed to vehicular traffic on: Parika and Supenaam departure times – 05:00h, 10:00h-12:00h, 16:00h, 18:30h daily

WEATHER TODAY

There will be sunshine during the day. Expect clear skies at night. Temperatures should range between 21 degrees Celsius and 32 degrees Celsius.

Winds: South-Easterly to Northerly between 1.78 metres and 4.47 metres.

High Tide: 18:04h reaching a maximum height of 2.82 metres.

Low Tide: 11:40h reaching a minimum height of 0.48 metre.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF), following the conclu sion of its 2022 Article IV Consultation with Guyana, has lauded the Government’s prudent management of the economy, against global fi nancial shocks and other fac tors.

In a statement on its Article IV consultation with Guyana, which was released on Tuesday, the IMF stated that the Executive Directors agreed with the appraisal conducted by their staff, of a growing economy weather ing global shocks. They also noted that the increasing oil production could help trans form the economy, address development needs, and build substantial buffers to absorb these shocks.

“Nevertheless, consider ing the potential challenges related to volatility in global oil prices and effective man agement of natural resourc es, they highlighted the need for continued prudent policies and structural reforms, as sisted by Fund technical as sistance, to avoid build-up of macroeconomic vulnerabili ties, ensure inclusive growth and intergenerational equity, as well as address structural weaknesses and climate chal lenges,” they said.

According to the IMF statement, the Executive Directors commended the Government’s efforts to main tain financial stability and promote financial inclusion, as well as the progress made in implementing the 2016 Financial Sector Assessment Programme (FSAP) recom mendations, as well as the commitment to fully im plement the Anti-Money Laundering/Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/ CFT) framework.

There were other note worthy things the IMF com mended the Government for, such as the “significant de cline in public debt and fa vourable debt dynamics go ing forward, the authorities’ commitment to maintain debt sustainability and stressed the importance of anchoring fiscal policy in a medium-term framework.”

They also welcomed the restraint the Government dis played in not using oil rev enues before the passage of the recent amendments of the Natural Resource Fund Act. Since coming into office in August 2020, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government did not touch the monies from the oil fund until they made the first withdrawal this year of $41.7 billion, to fund development projects in the 2022 budget. The bank encouraged the Government’s continued pru dent management of oil reve nues.

“Directors called for mod erately ramping up public investment by constraining the annual non-oil overall fis cal balance to not exceed the expected oil transfers. They also encouraged the authori ties to continue improving the targeting of social spending. Directors agreed with the au thorities that exchange rate stability serves Guyana’s cur rent needs best and empha sised the importance of taking measures to further develop and deepen financial and for eign exchange markets, as the oil production increases.”

“They saw merit in re vising the monetary policy framework over the medium to long-term to ensure it is well suited for the economy’s needs, and that it allows more flexibility in the exchange rate to absorb shocks and help maintain competitiveness,” the IMF said.

Diversified economy

The IMF went on to praise the Government’s ef forts to strengthen anti-cor ruption frameworks and also the continued efforts to miti gate against climate change. Another call the IMF made was for the continuation of broad-based reforms to ad dress structural weakness

es and diversify the economy, emphasising the significant human development and in frastructure needs.

Guyana’s increased fo cus on agriculture is testimo ny to the Government’s ef forts 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.

In the rice sector, over $100 million has been spent to improve rice yields. Additionally, support in pest control has been provided to farmers, while the Agriculture Ministry also marked the milestone of the Value-Added Laboratory becoming opera tional in March 2022.

In the first half of the year, $651.9 million of the $1.3 bil lion budgeted for the year was spent in supporting oth er crops, which includes veg etables. The results of that support include the comple tion of 109 shade houses, four green houses and the expan sion of various spices. The Government is projecting that

by year end, 62 acres of tur meric and 633 acres of ginger will be in cultivation.

Meanwhile, the sum of $142.7 million out of $343.7 million was expended by the Fisheries Department during the review period. Through the Government’s interven tions into aquaculture pro duction, there was a 444.1 per cent increase in the first half of the year compared with the same period in 2021.

Additionally, at mid-year, brackish-water shrimp pro duction increased by 292.6 per cent. This, according to the Mid-Year Report, was a direct result of Government’s expanded brackish-wa ter shrimp production pro gramme.

Government’s focus on ag riculture is down to the vision of making Guyana the bread basket of the Caribbean and reducing the regional food im port bill. Last year, President Ali had declared that his Government would be pursu ing an aggressive campaign to dismantle regional barriers to agricultural trade and that in the next four years, with the assistance of more diversified crops, Guyana would aim to reduce Caricom’s food import bill by 25 per cent. (G3)

The IMF also lauded the Government’s efforts at diversifying the economy

Views

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Prioritising strategy for suicide prevention

The blinding need for oblivion from harsh realities of overwhelming problems is the driver behind many persons seeking to quit life as the ultimate solution to difficult situations.

A person suffering from deep depression needs assurances that solutions can be found. Problems are not insurmountable, but coping with extant and future challenges necessitates one staying alive, not take what seems the easy way out, leaving much devastation in the wake of one’s action, especially the grief and guilt that surviving family members have to cope with.

Suicide is indeed a mental health problem, often precipitated by one catalysing factor at a moment’s impulse. This global phenomenon is a scourge affecting every nation of the world.

However, suicide is preventable, and education through generally interactive counselling sessions — especially in schools, churches and at various youth fora; as well as easilyaccessible helplines that could provide timely interventions by way of a conduit, a compassionate listening ear, and provision of advice based on rational reasoning for revealing bad experiences and expressing negative emotions, especially impersonal ones — can serve to reduce the crippling pain to bearable levels, and enable rational thought that diffuses intentions of self-destruction.

In a national context, there needs to be a holistic approach involving multi-sectoral agencies, especially in the health, education, and social services sectors.

In a report by the World Health Organisation (WHO), Guyana was cited as the country with the highest suicide rate in the world — 44.2 suicides per 100,000 deaths, four times the global average.

The WHO report was an attempt to bring global attention to the issue of suicide. The goal was to encourage individual countries to take steps to prevent suicide, considering their specific culture and addressing local risk factors. In early 2015, Guyana became one of only 28 countries to develop a suicide prevention plan in response to the report. The plan identifies factors that could contribute to the country’s high rate of suicide.

Records reveal that approximately 70 per cent of the country’s suicides occur in rural regions, where many people assuage their feelings of hopelessness with overindulgence in alcohol to cope with their poverty and economic despair. Instead, the alcohol exacerbates depression in minds deprived of reasoning powers by alcohol-induced neurosis, precipitating suicidal thoughts.

Prioritising formulating a strategy for suicide prevention has become an imperative, because the consequence is not only the tragic, preventable loss of a life; but this one irreversible and tragic act has many victims, especially loved ones on whom is inflicted a lifetime of unendurable pain and emotional and psychological scars.

Guyana Government Psychologist and Addiction Specialist Caitlin Vieira avers that there is a lack of clinics and social support networks in some of these villages, but that there are plenty of rum shops. She says “sporting”, Guyanese slang for drinking, is a popular pastime.

Additionally, a study by the Pan American Health Organisation reported that nearly 80 per cent of Guyanese adolescents had their first drink before the age of 14, and some children try alcohol for the first time in elementary school.

Dysfunction in family constructs and bullying in schools and workplaces also contribute to Guyana’s high suicide rates.

Illicit drug usage has also become a major contributory factor to violent, anti-social behaviour and domestic abuse, oftentimes leading to murder and suicide.

Raising community awareness and breaking down the taboo is also important for countries like Guyana to make progress in preventing suicide.

Rethinking tourism: A Caribbean outlook

By Gaunette Sinclair-MaraGh

As the world cel ebrates World Tourism Day, I join in the celebration for this very important global in dustry and economy.

The “Rethinking Tourism” theme for this year's celebration is quite fitting, especially since the novel coronavirus pan demic has shown the world how vulnerable tourism is, as evidenced by the severe disruption of its economy at all levels.

Tourism in the Caribbean is extreme ly susceptible to environ mental forces, but it con tinues to demonstrate the true meaning of resil ience. Hurricanes, storms, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, COVID-19, and global economic shocks are among the uncontrollable events and impacts expe rienced, but the current rebound is the trueness of Caribbean tourism.

There was a drastic de cline in tourism perfor mance during the pan demic. Pre-pandemic data show that in 2019 trav el and tourism contrib uted 13.9 per cent to the Region's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). By 2020, it decreased by 53.2 per cent, and in 2021, al though it showed some improvement, travel and tourism only contribut ed 9.1 per cent to GDP in the Caribbean. There was also job loss, as in 2019 its contribution to jobs in the Region stood at 15.2 per cent, and in 2020, it de creased to 13.4 per cent.

There were, however, significant signs of recov ery in 2021, with a GDP

contribution of 36.6 per cent and job generation of 15.2 per cent. These con tributions are expected to further improve for 2022.

An associated indicator of recovery is the number of trips to the destination, which, for the first half of this year, stands at over four million, represent ing a 70 per cent increase when compared to 2021. The data speaks for it self, and the rebounding of tourism in the Caribbean is not surprising.

Travel, whether for business, leisure/plea sure, or to visit family and friends, is a natural way of life for the human being. Research has shown that travel enhances human health and happiness and relieves stress and depres sion. It provides the ave nue to meet new people, appreciate different cul tures, build global peace, and allows the traveller to be more informed about other places, among fur ther benefits. What better way to enjoy freedom of movement from the lock down and other restric tions of the pandemic than to travel to the Caribbean, a destination with its uniqueness of character. The rebound of Caribbean tourism came with a lot of rethinking. At the start, and during the peak of the prolonged pandemic, tour ism realists in the Region were busy pivoting and rethinking know-hows to deal with the day-to-day issues for business surviv al and continuity.

Correspondingly, tour ism idealists were not dis tracted by the forces of the pandemic, but were preparing for tourism re

covery by rethinking and reimagining this phenom enon and the business of tourism for recovery during and post the pan demic.

Congratulations to the Caribbean! Tourism stake holders were not daunted because they aimed to un derstand the dynamic na ture of tourism and the resiliency of the industry in the Region. Their will power, insights, and fore sights have paid off. The Caribbean should, how ever, not become compla cent. There is more to be done, because other re gional destinations are, likewise, actively rethink ing their tourism offerings and marketing thrusts to the global market.

Rethinking tourism is the very serious ap plication of reimagining, re-evaluating, reassess ing, re-examining, recon sidering, and reworking what is done in the busi ness of tourism, especial ly for its sustainability.

Rethinking tourism is not just for now, but should be ongoing with the reimag ining of how tourism will benefit and safeguard the welfare of the Caribbean citizenry; the redesigning and application of emerg ing technologies (meth ods, processes, systems, digital applications, to name a few); retooling of the workforce to improve and strengthen the capac ities of the human capi tal; restructuring of job functions to make the op erations more efficient; re-engineering of the plant, facility, and oth er physical resources to make them more safe, en ergy-efficient, visitor-cen

tric, and environmental ly friendly; standardising sanitation and hygienic practices and procedures; improving the competi tiveness of the destination (price, products, and ser vices); differentiating by way of value-added tour ism goods and services; and restrategising mar keting efforts to make the message more captivating and attractive to current and potential markets.

The fact is that Caribbean tourism is the Region's main economy. Governments across the Region are most aware of this, but it is hoped that the cash cow tenet will not allow the busi ness of tourism to be sole ly for this purpose, but to be constantly reimagined, supported by appropri ate policy frameworks and resources to build a sus tainable export product with strong brand image and reputation within a global competitive space. What is evident, though, is that natural and global forces are no longer allow ing complacency; they are forcing the constant re thinking of tourism in the Caribbean.

Kudos to the Caribbean as a personified tourism destination. Let us con tinue to make tourism in the Region sustain able for the people and tourists/visitors through “One Sea, One Voice, One Caribbean”. (Jamaica Observer)

(Gaunette SinclairMaragh is an associate professor at the School of Advanced Management, College of Business and Management, University of Technology, Jamaica.)

Miss Cricket Carnival Queen, Guyanese Amel Griffith flanked by St Lucia’s Claire-Marissa Smartt and Barbados’s Beviny Ashley Payne the second and first runners up respectively (PotSalt media photo)

Guyana seeking to adopt new tourism themes as COVID-19 fades

Coming out from al most three years of COVID-19, several tourism themes have been explored across the world and Guyana is seeking to capitalise on some of these to redefine and create a solid sector.

World Tourism Day 2022 is observed under the theme “Rethinking Tourism”.

Tourism, Industry and Commerce Minister, Oneidge Walrond during her address at an event hosted by the US Ambassador, explained that much of the rethink ing is not new, having be ing considered even before COVID-19 hit.

“The experience of the pandemic was a compel ling manifestation of say ing ‘seeing is believing’ as we began to see and expe rience the positive effects of different patterns of hu man activity. We not only imagined a world where things could be done dif ferently but I think, many people resolved that we should not return to pre-pandemic attitudes.”

“The pandemic experi ence constituted a power ful enabler and driver of change and it is this driv ing force that is behind the call for rethinking tour ism. Even before the pan demic began, it was appre ciated that tourism needed to be rethought and re imagined,” she relayed.

From the rethinking of tourism, the Minister out lined that several themes are emerging and some are relevant to Guyana. Along with demand shap ing to have consistent vis itors, she said communi ty-based tourism is a good move.

“One of these themes is the move toward de mand shaping in order to reduce numbers at a desti nation at any single point in time…Some may ar gue that this pertains to destinations where high numbers threaten the des tination’s capacity to sus tainably deal with them. But even here in Guyana, faced that we are with the capacity constraint, such demand shaping can be useful as we look toward growing our tourism mar ket.”

Economic, social impact

Meanwhile, another major theme is ensuring a wider economic and social impact from tourism.

Walrond identified, “With respect to social and economic development, for

us, inclusion means that the services we deliver and the programmes we im plement must benefit all Guyanese. This means all Guyanese, regardless of who they are, where they live, ethnic origin, politi cal persuasion or any oth er characteristic.”

Meanwhile, US Ambassador to Guyana, Sarah-Ann Lynch focused on modernising the indus

try, which mostly revolves around enabling online ac cess to products and infor mation, lowering the high prices of excursions, and facilitating easier pay ment systems.

“Could airlines flying to Kaieteur Falls offer on line booking? Could air lines work together to fill planes to ensure individ uals or small groups are also able to see the maj

esty of Kaieteur Falls? Is there a way for costs to be come more affordable to ensure as many Guyanese as possible can enjoy this jaw dropping and stun ning experience?”

She also identified, “How about online book ing for restaurants, tour ism services and events? Tickets to everything from

concerts to – yes – crick et matches – could be of fered online. Many tour ists note that the only way to book things in Guyana is via WhatsApp, and to find the right WhatsApp is not easy. Perhaps even ferry slots for cars could be booked in advance, al lowing for more reliable transportation and vaca

tion planning,” the diplo mat suggested.

Data shows that over 150,000 visitors have been recorded arriving in Guyana in the first half of the year and according to stats from the Ministry of Finance’s Mid-Year Report, over 150,000 more are expected in the second half of 2022. (G12)

Tourism, Commerce and Industry Minister Oneidge Walrond A section of the gathering at the event in observance of World Tourism Day at the US Ambassador’s residence

…pandemic experience constituted a powerful enabler, driver of change – Tourism Minister

Page Foundation

Unit Test

Exercises: Calculate

1) John is replacing the moulding around his windows. The perimeter of each window measures 1 metre and he has 6 windows. How many metres of moulding does he need?

2) Anne wants to make a big batch of sorrel drink. The container holds five gallons and she is using a 1-quart jug to fill it. How many jugs of water will she need to fill the container?

3) Harry is weighing black cake for shipping to the USA. The first cake weighs 32 ounces, the second weighs 2 pounds and the third weighs 12 ounces. Which plant is he avier?

4) Sandra wants to build a fence around her yard, and she needs to know how much chain-link material to buy. Her yard has sides of 20 feet and 20 yards. How much chainlink material does she need in metres?

5) Which has the greater area: a 100-yard square or a rectangle with sides of 10 me tres and 11 metres?

6) What is the area of a triangle with sides of 3 metres, 5 metres and 60 inches?

7) Which is more expensive: $1000 per gallon gas or $275 per litre kerosene?

8) What is the volume of a shoebox with sides of 24 inches, 25 centimetres and 0.25 metre?

9) A modern spacecraft travelling at 17, 500 miles per hour would travel how far in 1 minute?

10) If the earth is 24,000 miles in circumference, how much time would it take the spacecraft mentioned in Question 9 to orbit it once?

11) 98.6o F = ______oC

12) In track and field, the standard middle distance is 15,000 metres. How many feet is that?

13) My grandmother’s cookie recipe calls for 4 cups of flours and 1 pint of milk. Convert those quantities to metric units.

14) What is the volume of the triangular solid below ?

15) Annual rice production in Guyana for the year 2020 will reach an estimated 1.1 million tonnes. How many pounds of rice would that be?

Materials

Paper or card stock

Paper straws

Scotch tape and/or decorative tape

Hot glue gun, glue Scissors Instructions

1.Cut two strips of card stock using the following dimensions: 1? x 7 1/2? and 1? x 5?

2.Tape each strip into a circle.

3.Cut paper straws to be approximately 5 1/2? long. If you do not have straws see the optional pa per tube directions at the end.*

4.Glue the straws to the outside edge of the big circle. They should be placed at the 12, 3, 6 and 9 o’clock positions. The fourth straw should be glued at the point where you taped the circle together.

5.Glue the other end of the straws onto the ou ter edge of the small circle. Be sure to align the ta ped starting point of this circle with the larger cir cle below to make sure your zoomer isn’t twisted!

6. Decorate it! If desired decorate your zoomer with washi tape or markers.

* Optional: If you don’t have straws, you can make paper tubes. Do not make paper tubes out of card stock, it is too difficult to bend. Make them out of paper only. Cut four strips using the follo wing dimensions: 2? x 7 1/2?. Wrap each strip tightly around a pencil, then unfurl and cut out each indivi dual tube. Roll one of the tube secti ons around a pencil again and tape to hold it together. Repeat to make four tubes total. Note: These are a bit heavier than straws so they do add some weight to the zoomer.

7.Fly them! Hold one of the st raws near the back end and aim the zoomer up. Fly it as you would a pa per airplane. (babbledabbledo.com)

By The BroThers Grimm

WORD SEARCH

High interest in Guyanese products by US states – Ambassador …urges Guyanese businesses to capitalise on interest

Several states in the United States are in terested in Guyanese products, and with trade between the two countries exceeding US$1.4 billion in the first half of the year, US Ambassador to Guyana Sarah-Ann Lynch is urging businesses to capitalise on this interest.

On Monday Lynch spoke at a forum themed “Exporting to the US”. While there, she revealed statistics on trade between Guyana and the US, which has exceeded US$1.4 billion in the first half of the year.

She also spoke of American interest in goods from Guyana and the need for Guyana to increase its export competitiveness. When it comes to bilateral trade between Guyana and the US, the Ambassador was optimistic that this number will grow as Guyana's econ omy grows.

“We at the embassy have a small but strong econom ic and commercial team and we are always happy to of fer market insights and ad vice, to all of you. We have entrepreneurial booths; we do training from time to time.”

“Also, we continue to col laborate with the Guyanese and American private sec tors, offering extensive en trepreneurship training and mentorship, as well as

US Ambassador to Guyana, Sarah-Ann Lynch

connecting folks to potential partners. The US has many states that would be inter ested in Guyanese products. So please consider logistical support, alongside of the state which you intend to be your first market.”

She encouraged Guyanese businesses inter ested in trading with the US, to participate in trade missions. This, Ambassador Lynch noted, will expose them to industry leaders and allow them to foster partnerships.

“Each state has its own trade and developmental agency and there are al ways trade shows to consid er attending. Though I do advise you to apply well in advance if you need a visa… and there are local resourc es and chambers who also have valuable experience to share,” Ambassador Lynch said.

Changing trends

Meanwhile, Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL) Chairman Komal Samaroo in his own presentation, also bolstered Ambassador Lynch’s point about the im portance of Guyana being able to competitively pro duce and export goods.

He made it clear that the conditions under which companies such as his once traded with the US, have changed. This includes the preferential trade arrange ments that have evaporat ed with the globalisation of free trade.

“In pursuing your busi ness development, you need to make that determina tion – which segment of the market are you targeting? If you are in the commodity segment, you will have few customers and they as your business partner will gener ally guide you on the legal requirements and the stan dards required for them to import your product.”

“Invariable in this type of arrangement you will become part of the sup ply chain of a manufactur er or packer and compet itive price, and reliability of supplies become import ant criteria for successful ly growing your business,” Samaroo said.

In recent years there have been a number of new, but important trends that

are driving some of the changes that can be of in terest to producers in the Caribbean. He gave exam ples of some of the factors that have changed the way trade is done, including the rise in millennials and the increased use of social me dia marketing

World Trade Center

Samaroo also attribut ed the increased self-aware ness of customers who want safe, clean and green prod ucts, as well as their in creased desire to know what are in products. All the more reason why the setting up of the World Trade Center in Guyana is so important.

“Products that are suc cessfully marketed generally are those that capitalise on these trends in their design and marketing approaches. It is exactly because of the complexity of the interna tional marketplace and the need to build connections and get relevant informa tion that DDL has obtained

DDL Chairman Komal Samaroo

a licence to set up the World Trade Centre of Georgetown, Guyana.”

“Connecting Guyanese businesses with potential partners around the world and accessing relevant infor mation through a network of over 300 World Trade Centres around the world will be a major benefit to the Guyanese businesses seek ing an increase share of glob al trade,” Samaroo said.

It was announced back in April of this year that Guyana would be the home of the first

World Trade Center (WTC) in the Caribbean Community (Caricom), following sever al months of negotiations between DDL and the New York-headquartered World Trade Center Association (WTCA).

According to Samaroo, work has already begun on modifying the building to accommodate the activities of the WTC, Georgetown, Guyana, and they are ex pecting the building to be op erational in the first half of 2023.

$90M extortion probe Journalists slapped with conspiracy charges, released on bail

Two journalists, 49-year-old Alex Wayne and Gary Eleazar, 41, were on Tuesday slapped with two counts of conspiracy charges when they appeared at the Cove and John Magistrate’s Court.

The duo was arrested on Saturday after they were caught extorting monies, during a sting operation, from an auto dealer in ex change for the removal of a “libellous” article from a so cial media platform.

However, they plead ed not guilty to the charges when they were read to them by Magistrate Fabayo Azore. As such, they were granted bail in the sum of $100,000 each and the matter was adjourned to November 1, 2022.

It was reported that the article in question was pub lished on the Facebook page of Guyana News Network

(GNN), which purports to be a “news agency”, with the auto dealer’s photo graph alleging that he is in volved in illegal activities –something which he said is untrue but caused him to be “embarrassed” and his “rep utation was tarnished”. The site is said to be operated by an overseas-based polit ical activist.

The Police on Sunday

confirmed that as investi gations intensified, investi gators would have obtained voice recordings of the po litical activist, who has ties to the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), and an overseas-based Guyanese businessman, both demanding $90 million from the local auto dealer in order to remove the article published about him.

As such, investigators said that they were looking for an overseas-based busi nessman, who is presently in Guyana. He was taken to court last year for alleged ly importing illegal fuel into Guyana, for further ques tioning into the matter.

It was further report ed that Eleazar, who has access to the social media page, along with Wayne approached the auto deal er separately and request ed $10 million instead to re move the article from social media.

It was at this point that the auto dealer went to the Police on August 29 and filed a report about the ex tortion. This resulted in the Police setting up the sting operation to catch the two journalists, who are report edly close associates of the overseas-based business man.

TURN TO PAGE 11

Fair weather…

…friends

When your Eyewitness thinks about Haiti nowadays, two old sayings rush to mind – “fair weather friends”, and “a friend in need is a friend indeed”. Well, just before the elections, a whole bunch of local Guyanese erupted in defence of Haitians, who were being trafficked through Guyana to the slums (favelas) of Brazil!! Man, you ought’ve heard them carrying on about our RESPONSIBILITY to Haiti for the historic role it played in defeating the army of the great Napoleon Bonaparte to eventually make the first black Republic in the Western Hemisphere!! Before Simon Bolivar!!

So, back to Haiti, which is in dire need of some friends right now, but, as it looks around, all it can see are “fair weather friends”!! We all know about the assassination of Haiti’s President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021 by those Colombian mercenaries - evidently hired by Haitian business interests. Roving gangs had already been controlling vast swathes of Port au Prince and its suburbs, and the armed forces appeared incapable of bringing them to heel. The system was so corrupt that the gangs had everybody in their pockets – where they could rummage around for small change!! The business class prospered because, no matter how poor and chaotic, there’s more money to be made in chaos!!

The UN forces were similarly ineffective – for the same reason of becoming corrupted. Then all the international aid disappeared down a black hole created by the same gangs and avaricious business class. Now, your Eyewitness is a fervent supporter of the view of the seminal role of the Haitian Revolution and Toussaint L’ Overture. He’s shown the path to all peoples who were forced to live in slavery and semi-slavery under the various Empires –British, Portuguese, French, German and even BELGIAN!! – how we can strike back at the Empire and bring it to its knees.

And for this reason, he’d supported those trafficked Haitians, who were desperately trying to get out of the hell-hole that Haiti had become for the longest while. Even the favelas of Brazil were heaven compared to their native land. But the question your Eyewitness posed then - and is posing again – is: what are we doing to help Haiti, apart from helping to help some individual Haitians?? We made Haiti a member of Caricom because, even though they were from the French Empire, we saw them as a member of the same “community” – a people honed by chattel slavery and oppression.

So, what your Eyewitness expects is that those who were up in arms about Haitian “exploitation” back in early 2020 should now join your Eyewitness to petition Caricom to add its 15 votes in the UN to support an intervention in Haiti!!

With OUR soldiers as peacekeepers.

…fans?

Man, oh man!! Did our boys take a shellacking from those Royals – who were really royal – yesterday at Providence? Looked like those Bajans were bowling an oversize black ball in a bowling alley - the way our wickets went down like ten-pins! We barely scraped a hundred, after the Royals had amassed a massive 195 - matching our own highest CPL score. That should’ve alerted our Warriors that these fellas had come out to prove a point. The point being that, with their record, they were playing for the pride of being number ONE!!

But, as the fat lady sang, “it ain’t over till it’s over”. Even though we lost the first game today after winning FOUR at home – hey, the law of averages had to kick in sooner or later, didn’t it?? - we play again tonight. And take it from your black-tongued Eyewitness – we’ll be getting back to our winning ways!!

And this will put us into the finals on Friday!!

…pedant

There’s this PNC SHADOW FOREIGN MINISTER who boasted that - unlike PNC supporters – PPP’s are “mentally lazy”. But here she was, mocking Pres Ali for pronouncing “Turkey” as “Turkey – ye” even though that country requested - and the UN’s accepted - that pronunciation!!

Mentally lazy??

The views expressed in

necessarily

Readers are invited to send

are

Gary Eleazar Alex Wayne

Electric bike collides with truck, rider dies

car driver stopped him and informed him that he col lided with a cyclist. He was later arrested by the Police.

Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) pro nounced the cyclist dead at the scene.

His body was identified by his relatives and was escorted to the Memorial Funeral Home where it is presently awaiting a post-mortem examination.

Meanwhile, a notice of Intended Prosecution was served on the driver of the motor lorry. A breathalyser test conducted on him found no trace of alcohol.

He is presently in police

custody assisting with fur ther investigations.

Electric bikes

Just last month, the Traffic Department of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) expressed concern over per sons, including minors, and their reckless use of electric bikes on the roadways.

According to Traffic Chief Dennis Stephens, not only is it dangerous to have underage persons rid ing electric bikes but there have been a lot of fatalities since this type of transport became popular in the coun try.

Electrical bikes are not

registered by the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), thus leaving their operation unchecked.

As such, Stephens had said the GPF was engag ing the GRA and the Legal Affairs Ministry, to seek ad vice on what could be done about the usage of electric bikes in Guyana.

He said apart from the cycles not being registered, they have no insurance or fitness.

Assistant Superintendent Raun Clark, Officer-in-Charge of traffic in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), in November 2021, slammed

the use of e-bikes on pub lic roadways. Clark said there was no law the Traffic Department could enforce against the users of those cycles as he raised concerns over the lack of age limit for their use.

Similarly, earlier this year, Divisional Traffic Officer of Division 4A –(Georgetown), Deputy Superintendent Timothy Williams contended that the use of e-bikes would re quire the creation of poli cies that would need to be strongly reinforced to cater to those citizens who tra verse the roadways with the controversial e-bikes. (G9)

Wanted Guyanese stabbed to death in Suriname

As concerns are be ing raised over the rise in death on the roadways as a result of the use of electric motorcycles in Guyana, the death of a 45-year-old man has been announced as the newest road fatality.

Dead is Hawatt Greenidge, whose electric bike collided with a mo tor lorry as he was riding along Mandela Avenue, Georgetown.

The truck driver, whom Police said is a Trinidadian, was driving motor lor ry GZZ 8550, and was pro

ceeding south along Nelson Mandela Avenue, whilst the electric cycle was proceed ing in the same direction in the pedal cycle lane.

The driver of the truck told Police he drove past the cyclist and the left rear wheel of the motor lorry might have collided with the cyclist, causing him to fall onto the road surface along with the electric cy cle, where the lorry wheel then drove over the cyclist’s head, crushing him.

He said he continued to proceed further south, where an unknown motor

Guyanese man killed in Suriname for stealing cheese

Thirty-seven-year-old

Medellin Orlando Evans, a man who had been evading Police in Guyana for the past two years while he had been wanted for the murder of 78-year-old businessman Tony Bisnauth, has been killed in Suriname.

Evans has reported ly been stabbed dead on the Hoogestraat in Suriname over the weekend.

He had wanted in Guyana for the death of Bisnauth, who was shot dead outside his snack ette at Rosignol, West Coast Berbice.

Reports out of Suriname have stated that, on Saturday evening, Evans had had a heated argument with a man who has been identi fied as ‘Quinten’. According

to the suspect, he had had to pay the victim SRD 300, KPS writes. However, when Evans asked for his money, the suspect could not pay, and that had led to an argu ment, and an altercation had ensued between the men.

The suspect has claimed that Evans had pulled out a gun and pulled the trig ger, but the gun did not fire. In retaliation, he allegedly pulled out a sharp object and stabbed Evans, who report edly died on the spot.

“A general appeal was launched by the Command Center for the various Police units on the field. When the Police arrived at the loca tion, the suspect had already

left the spot. After obtain ing information, (and follow ing) good investigative work from the Regional Assistance Team Paramaribo (RBTP), the 26-year-old suspect, Quinten M, was arrested at a fishing company in the Livorno resort,” Suriname of ficials have said.

Evans’s body is being kept for an autopsy at the or der of the Surinamese Public Prosecution Service, while ‘Quinten’ has been taken into custody. The investigation in this case has been trans ferred to the Capital Offenses Department in Suriname.

Evans and his brother Carlos Evans had been want ed by Police in Guyana since

March 2020, and despite a wanted bulletin having been issued for the duo, they had managed to evade the Police.

It was reported that Bisnauth was celebrating his birthday with close rela tives and friends outside his snackette at Rosignol when three men, armed with two guns and a cutlass, pounced on them and demanded cash and valuables.

According to reports, the man did not comply with the bandits’ demand, and Bisnauth was shot in the head. The brothers were lat er identified as two of the suspects, and Police have since been on the hunt for them. (G9)

AGuyanese man, whose name has not yet been revealed by Surinamese authorities, was killed on Thursday evening at the Weg naar Maretraite in Suriname af ter he allegedly stole a pack et of cheese from a Chinese national.

According to the Waterkant news, after the theft of the cheese was dis covered, the man was tak en hostage by a 32-yearold Chinese shopkeeper. The victim had put the sto len cheese in a container of his scooter, and two work ers are said to have helped the shopkeeper to tie the victim’s hands and feet in the store with tape and tie wraps.

“According to eyewit nesses, the victim was then dragged to the store’s ware house and severely beat en by the storekeeper. The

case is said to have occurred around 8p.m on Thursday. After nearly four hours, the victim was found by by standers across the street from the supermarket,” the Waterkant news agency re ported.

It was also reported by Waterkant news agency that eyewitnesses said the victim was dragged across the supermarket by the shopkeeper. The Police were called in, and they launched an investigation. When cops arrived on the scene, the victim’s body was lying at the scene with a scooter hel met. The helmet was found with blood, but there was no trace of the scooter.

The store owner was arrested by Police, and re mains in custody as inves tigation continues. Two em ployees of the supermarket are also being sought by the Police. (G9)

The Guyanese man lying at the scene of the incident in Suriname

The motor lorry that struck Hawatt Greenidge down

Dead: Medellin Orlando Evans

The body of Medellin Orlando Evans after being stabbed to death in Suriname

Public Works Ministry considering new Canal #2 access road

The Public Works Ministry will, next month, finalise a de cision on whether or not it would construct an access road to Canal Number Two Polder, amid requests from several citizens.

Public Works Minister Juan Edghill has met with a group of residents from Canal Number Two Polder, West Bank Demerara, and a request was made to speedily address their need for an access road in the community.

Earlier this month, Edghill had visited the community after another group of residents had in

Journalists slapped with...

The intelligence-led opera tion was conducted on the East Coast of Demerara on Friday. During the sting operation, both Wayne and Eleazar went to the businessman to extort cash.

As a result, investigators then gave the businessman some money, along with cer tain instructions. The two re porters were then seen arriv ing at the location and going to the businessman. The trio en gaged in conversation during which Wayne and Eleazar de manded $1 million in order to remove the post from the GNN Facebook page.

In fact, Wayne took out his computer and handed same over to Eleazar, who went to the website and attempted

transporting their pro duce. Vehicle owners and taxi drivers who frequent the area would also be re lieved, they said. As such, the Public Works Minister has assured that the group’s request would be considered.

“I have heard y’all, and I will do a review, and with in a couple of weeks, max imum three weeks or by the middle of October, we have to make up our minds if that road will be done this year. The decision I will make is a decision that would be right and good for the entire community,” the Minister has said.

FROM PAGE 8

to remove the post but then claimed that the password that he was in possession of, was not working at the time for some reason.

As a result, the $1 million was handed over to the two journalists as a down payment in keeping with their demands. The duo collected the money and indicated to the business man that they would return sometime after to remove the post and collect the outstand ing monies.

However, as Wayne and Eleazar were about to leave the business establishment, they were intercepted by the Police and told of the allega tion. The officers then conduct ed a search during which a por tion of the money was found on

Eleazar, while another amount was found on Wayne.

Additionally, two cellular phones and a laptop were im mediately seized from the duo. Further searches were con ducted at their homes. A lap top and three hard drives were recovered from Eleazar’s resi dence and nothing further was found at Wayne’s home.

Public Works Minister Juan Edghill meeting with the residents of Canal Number Two Polder vited him to visit the area to determine the possibil ity of constructing a road opposite the Conservancy Dam in Canal Number Two. However, after walk ing the length of the dam and having the Ministry’s engineers thoroughly ex amine the area, Minister Edghill had sought to have an open discussion with residents about their re quest. This was because fa cilitation of their request was not then possible be cause of several challeng es and potential contami nation of the Conservancy.

During a video and audio interview, Wayne admitted to investigators that he acted in concert with Eleazar and the overseas-based businessman to create and publish the false article about the local auto dealer on GNN’s Facebook page.

According to Wayne, the two businessmen have “an on going issue”.

However, upon hear

ing that it was not possible to accommodate their re quest, residents had raised objections and had pro tested, which had abruptly ended the meeting. At that time, Edghill had urged the residents to work together and come up with another possible route that would benefit them all.

The second group of residents who visited this minister asked for an ac cess road to be construct ed in another part of the community, which they said would benefit every one, especially farmers, who struggle daily when

The Public Works Ministry has been given the largest allocation of Government’s $552.9 bil lion budget this year – the largest budget ever passed to date. A whopping $96.1 billion has been allocated to this ministry, and this would be used for new in frastructural works as well as updates to current struc tures across the country.

From this sum, some $88 billion has been set aside for capital expens es, covering several major projects. Some $76.7 bil lion has also been allot ted for roads and bridges. (G12)

Scenes from CPL Match

versus

at the

National

Work plan for holding LGE still a work in progress

…GECOM Chair to make decision on APNU/AFC ‘demands’ next week

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) statutory meeting on Tuesday saw a number of things dis cussed and a decision will be made by next week on the letter sent to GECOM seeking an investigation into a public disclosure of alleged voter imperson ation at the 2020 General and Regional Elections.

The letter in question was sent to GECOM last week by Carol Joseph, A

Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change’s (APNU/AFC) Chief Scrutineer. In the letter, the Opposition makes a number of de mands when it comes to the probe into voter fraud at the last election.

They have demanded that all information on vot er impersonation be for warded to the Police and the General Registration Officer. Additionally, they demanded that any ver ified reports of voter im personation be publicly re

leased.

APNU/AFC had also called for GECOM to do an internal probe into the matter, which they claim the electoral body had dis continued in 2020, as well as take steps to prevent any potential voter imper sonation in the future.

GECOM Commissioner Sase Gunraj related to this publication on Tuesday that the letter was dis cussed during the commis sion’s statutory meeting and that GECOM Chair, Retired Justice Claudette Singh, will make a deci sion on it by next week.

While Joseph is re questing that GECOM in vestigate the alleged cas es of voter impersonation, Gunraj pointed out that “A decision was already made that GECOM can’t investi gate.”

Attorney General Anil Nandlall has already asked the Police to inves tigate the documents of al leged voter fraud, which APNU had provided to

GECOM after the March 2020 General and Regional Elections.

At a recent statuto ry meeting, GECOM had voted to release these very documents, which had been requested by Nandlall to investigate Opposition’s claims of rig ging at the 2020 elections, notwithstanding efforts by the Opposition-nominated Commissioners to block this.

In a previous edition of his programme “Issues in the News”, Nandlall had pointed out that back in 2020, when APNU/AFC first made its erroneous claims, the PPP/C did in vestigations of its own.

During its investigations, the PPP/C was able to find many of the persons that APNU/AFC claimed were out of the jurisdiction or dead.

In fact, at the time many of these persons had come forward to pro test against and dispute APNU/AFC’s claims. This publication published sev eral such persons, who had been accused by the then ruling party of being ei ther dead or out of the ju risdiction, when their vote was recorded.

During last week’s press conference, howev er, Opposition MP and shadow Attorney General Roysdale Forde had ad mitted that some of the in formation the party had

submitted to GECOM, is indeed inaccurate. However, he had urged that all the information be verified.

In October 2020, Joseph made her first court ap pearance for several charges in relation to elec toral fraud following the March 2, 2020 elections.

She was arraigned on one count of forgery and two counts of conspiracy to defraud at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts and was placed on $30,000 bail for each charge.

LGE workplan

Meanwhile, Gunraj also explained on Tuesday that the workplan for the hold ing of Local Government Elections (LGE) is still a work in progress. GECOM has been working on hold ing Local Government Elections (LGE) by this year end. However, there is a workplan being exam ined by the Commission, that proposes holding it early next year.

LGE, which are usu ally due every two years, was last held in 2018. At the last LGE in November 2018, the then People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Opposition had secured 52 of the 80 Local Authority Areas (LAAs). This followed the hold ing of the LGE in 2016, during which the PPP/C also claimed the majority of the LAAs. (G3)

GECOM Commissioner Sase Gunraj

APNU/AFC Chief Scrutineer Carol Joseph

GECOM Chair, Retired Justice Claudette Singh

Ramsammy’s Ruminations

The imperative of learning from the past escapes a selective group

Our country and many others are plagued by those very vociferous voices that aid and abet wrong-doings and always find justification. For example, the most self-righteous and cantankerous voices talking about racial discrimination, democracy and free and fair elections and the OIL deal in Guyana are the very ones who had nothing to say about the brazen attempt to rig the elections of March 2, 2020, had nothing to say about the history of rigged elections in 1968, 1973, 1978, 1980 and 1985, had nothing but praise for the OIL deal inked by APNU/AFC with EXXON, and had nothing to say when the APNU/AFC government openly discriminated against Amerindians, Indo-Guyanese and PPP supporters between 2015 and 2020.

Quite often, some of those who do not have the moral authority to lecture us try to do exactly that. Every so often, Hamilton Green who has no moral authority to lecture anyone of us, recently lectured us about learning from lessons of the past and avoid the many catastrophes of the past. In itself, there is nothing wrong with his plea. In fact, it is commendable. But often we stand on better ground when we show examples, when we ourselves lead by examples. Guyana has had a horrible history of dictatorship between 1968 and 1992. Guyana has had a history that few dare deny of rigged elections between 1964 and 1992. Every election between those dates, in 1968, 1973, 1978, 1980, 1985, including the bogus referendum, were rigged. Hamilton Green should start there as an example of a leader that has learnt from our past.

Hamilton Green was a senior leader of the PNC in those years, between 1964 and 1992. He was there also when the PNC, in the form of APNU/AFC, tried to rig the March 2, 2020 elections. He did not learn anything about free and fair elections. But now that he has seen the light and is pleading with leaders to learn from the past, maybe, in this new wisdom, he will apologize to the Guyanese people for any role he might have played in those rigged elections. Is he willing to stand up and confess that the PNC was wrong in rigging elections after elections in our country? I fully expect that if Hamilton Green was to respond to this, he will deny there were rigged elections. But hopefully in this new wisdom of his he would not insult our collective intelligence. I, for one, am not holding my breathe because I am certain that Hamilton Green has learnt nothing and will not apologize for those brazen and horrific rigged elections that span three decades.

It is now just past two years since the March 2, 2020 elections. Will persons like Hamilton Green stand up and take a position that the time has come for the PNC leader to accept the results of the March 2020 elections, an election that was scrutinized and observed by credible international bodies? A band of criminals attempted to steal an election in plain sight and elders like Hamilton Green stood by in silence, said not a word. Did he not learn a lesson from our past?

IN the letter columns of newspapers, there is a champion pontificator. In a letter to the newspaper on September 26, he castigated Bharat Jagdeo, Guyana’s Vice President, openly deeming Bharat Jagdeo a tool of EXXON. Bharat Jagdeo is on record, as many of us are, that the 2016 deal was a bad one for Guyana. When this particular pontificator who wrote the letter was with the group that signed the EXXON deal after 2015, he found nothing wrong with the deal. The deal was only wrong after August 2020 when the people of this country royally ditched David Granger and APNU/AFC. All the while, when APNU/AFC was in government, there was nothing wrong with the OIL deal. Granger and Trotman and the whole APNU/AFC cabal had signed an agreement that many who now screamed for renegotiation and a new deal, who want to stop OIL extraction, were silent about. Suddenly, with President Irfaan Ali and Vice President Bharat Jagdeo and the PPP government, what was good before August 2020 is very wrong today. And, according to these persons, the persons to blame for the bad deal are President Irfaan Ali and Vice-President Bharat Jagdeo. It is sheer, unadulterated hypocrisy.

A few weeks ago, a band of charlatans held a conference to highlight the emergence of apartheid in Guyana. This is a country where the vast majority of public servants, the overwhelming majority of the security forces are Afro-Guyanese, where the majority of Permanent Secretaries are Afro-Guyanese, where more than 30% of the Cabinet are Afro-Guyanese, where the PM is an Afro-Guyanese. What kind of apartheid is this? When the APNU/AFC government dismissed thousands of Indo- and Amerindian Guyanese, when ethnic discrimination was taken for granted, these same charlatans did not see ethnic discrimination.

But, by the thousands, Guyanese of all ethnic groups gathered at the stadium to support and celebrate with the Amazon warriors. They gathered at various carnival events to demonstrate ONE GUYANA. For sure leaders like Hamilton Green has not learnt from the past, but Guyanese of all walks of life, all ethnic groups, are putting past polarization behind, working that our future is ONE GUYANA.

Bird-hunting trip turns deadly at Garden of Eden …family calls for Police to reopen investigation

By LaWanda McaLLister

and ask me for ‘Sio’ [the son’s nickname],” he said.

A31-year-old

father of three, who has been identified as Simon Peters of Garden of Eden, East Bank Demerara (EBD), was found dead in a trench at Garden of Eden Backdam on Thursday afternoon by his father, after leaving with his friend for a bird hunting trip.

The dead man’s father, John Peters in an inter view with Guyana Times on Tuesday said after his son left their home on Thursday afternoon at about 15:00h, all efforts made to contact him thereafter proved futile.

The man said after re alising that something was amiss, his son’s wife began calling his friend’s phone, but those calls went to voice mail.

He said hours later, his son’s friend went to their home asking for Simon, which caused them to be come worried.

“They left to go catch birds, and he come late and ask me where is my son be cause he don’t know where he is. He said he and my son

went together and then he go one side and my son go the other side…and he said when he come out to come home, he see me son bird on the road, he phone and he gun,” the fa ther said.

“He said after he didn’t see me son, he walk and he come home. He said he went to my son house and then he go back to the conservan cy where they was checking for bird. He said he went and come back again. When he come back, he said he come

The man said that he told his son’s friend that he did not see Simon, and insisted that they return to the area where his son’s belongings were found.

“He tell me he call for Sio and he in hear no noise and that was like around 7:30 (19:30h), I ended up going back to the place. I take a torchlight and me and he go and look. I ask he where is the last place where you pick up his things and he pass and go up straight.”

“When he walk up he said he see my son in a yellow jer sey up the road but I don’t know is who he see…because my son didn’t have on no yel low jersey at the time. He go home for the next time and come back to the spot again. When he come I ask him to show me the bamboo my son cut and he show me the spot.”

“He walk lil more up and he didn’t see my son, but my son was right where he walked at the side laying down there. I don’t know how he couldn’t see him when he wasn’t in no corner or any

thing. I don’t know the cause of that. I walked behind and I see my son and take him up from where he went,” the man explained.

John Peters said he re membered lifting his son up and putting him on the con crete, and from his obser vation, his son seemed as though he had died some time before they got there.

“Right away I got my nephew’s car and we took him straight to the hospital and the doctor pronounced him dead and from there, the hospital called the Police.”

Following the incident, John Peters said an autop sy was conducted on his son’s body and the results revealed that he died from blunt trau ma coupled with drowning.

The family believes that the man was murdered and claimed that something about his friend’s story does not add up.

“We believe that he was murdered.”

The family is calling for the Police to reopen their in vestigation and a thorough probe to be conducted into the incident.

Dr Leslie Ramsammy

Dead: Simon Peters

Sol reignites collaboration with GTI

The company will pro vide two students selected from the programme with annual industrial job in ternship and present an annual prize to the highest preforming student from the programme.

Labour Minister, Venezuelan Ambassador discuss integration of immigrants

Sol Guyana Inc and the Government Technical Institute (GTI) have once again em barked on a journey to en hance educational opportu nities available to students of the Motor Vehicle Engine systems programme at the Guyana Technical Institute (GTI) with a three-year sponsorship.

Sol has been supporting Guyana’s education sector and the wider Caribbean for students at all levels over the past years.

While addressing the gathering of students,

General Manager of Sol Guyana Inc, Earl Carribon said that Guyana is now on a sustainable econom ic journey which is being led by its natural resourc es, while also noting that they play an integral role in contributing power to the development of Guyana through the oil and gas and non-oil and gas sectors.

He also noted that Sol is undertaking several in vestment infrastructures, storage expansion and will be bringing new service stations to Guyana soon, which demonstrate their

belief for sustainability for Guyana’s development.

Additionally, he not ed that 97 per cent of the staff employed at the com pany are Guyanese and as such continuous training and development opportu nities are available for the Guyanese employed, and that investing in the educa tion of youths is an opportu nity to power their journey not only toward building their competencies but also propelling them in their se lected field of studies while equipping them with the necessary skills.

Training will also be done under lubricants technical, which will be delivered under Mobil lu bricants. Personal protec tive equipment for staff and students enrolled in the programme will be pro vided, and the refurbish ing of four classrooms as well as the motor vehicle engine systems workshop will be undertaken, which will also see critical safety signs and mechanic tips be ing installed in classrooms.

Carribon also noted that motor vehicle engine sys tems is an area where a significant contribution is made, and leaders in lubri cant technology and devel opment are necessary.

He said that there are many natural synergies be tween the programme and the value proposition of the Mobil lubricant brand, while adding that Sol re mains committed to play ing its part in the devel opment of a prosperous Guyana.

The general manager added that the company looks forward to the many benefits which will be de rived from the collabora tion with GTI. He encour aged students to take up the Motor Vehicle Engine Systems programme and to continue to strive for ex cellence in their respective fields.

Labour Minister Joseph Hamilton and Ambassador of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to Guyana, Carlos Amador Perez Silva, on Tuesday discussed ways of properly integrating Venezuelan immigrants into the Guyanese society.

This follows a courtesy call on the Minister by the Ambassador at the Labour Ministry.

“As you know, there is plenty of Venezuelans here, immigrants and the idea is to work together with the Ministry of Labour in order to regularise the status of these people, and let them have access to work legally in Guyana,” the Ambassador said in a comment to DPI af ter the meeting.

The new diplomat re lated that, as mandatory, he has been paying courte sy calls on members of the Government of Guyana for

five months.

He stated that overall, it is an honour to serve with in Guyana and see firsthand the development tak ing place.

“I feel happy for the Guyanese people, and my in tention is to work very close ly as much as we can with the Government of Guyana, and to advance in the bilat eral cooperation and solid relations we have enjoyed for many years.”

Silva had previous ly served for three years as First Secretary to Guyana.

“Those years were won derful years—but imagine, after 22 years ago, when I received the notification that I’m going to be the new Ambassador, it’s difficult to describe the feelings…. I got flashbacks. Memories came back, and I said wow, I’m go ing back to Guyana, but now as an Ambassador. So, it’s a big responsibility,” he said.

Sol Guyana Inc and GTI representatives signing the new three-year sponsorship

Ambassador of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to Guyana, Carlos Amador Perez Silva greeting Labour Minister Joseph Hamilton

Fire averted at Essequibo Technical Institute

responders were called and it is suspected that the fire started from an electrical cable, situated in a class room on the upper flat of the institution.

Earlier in the month, the Guyana Fire and Rescue Service confirmed that the massive fire that destroyed the St George’s High School in Georgetown in July was electrical in nature.

Amajor fire was avert ed at the Essequibo Technical Institute (ETI) after fast response by the Guyana Fire and Rescue Service led to its quick extinguishing.

Reports are that at about 09:40h on Monday, the Fire Service was called in after electrical sparks were seen in the control panel area.

The Guyana Fire and

Rescue Service in a release on Tuesday evening said that the incident may have occurred as a result of a breakdown in electrical in stallation. This led to a con trol panel being ignited and severely damaged.

“Firefighters utilized a 4.5kg dry chemical fire ex tinguisher to extinguish the fire and brought the sit uation under control,” GFS

said in a statement.

Less than two weeks ago, major catastrophe was averted when a fire, sus pected to be electrical in na ture, started at the Amelia’s Ward Primary School in Region 10.

Reports are that about 13:00h, a staff member ob served flames in one of the classrooms and immediate ly sounded an alarm. Fire

15-year-old gets medal for bravery after rescuing doctor: 'It's my pleasure to help'

When Gregg Alejandro Mannette saved a doctor from drowning in waters off No Man’s Land, Tobago, just five months ago, little did he know that his selfless act would catch the attention of the highest office in the land.

Gregg, 15, was award ed the Hummingbird bronze medal for gallant ry on Saturday night at the National Awards ceremony at the National Academy for the Performing Arts, Port of Spain.

He was one four peo ple who received the Hummingbird bronze medal.

President Paula-Mae Weekes chatted warmly with Gregg as she pinned his medal. He then got tight hug and handshake from the Prime Minister, standing as tall as Dr Rowley.

The St Mary’s College student, who plays water polo, said he is extremely honoured to receive such a prestigious award.

“It is a pleasure to be a young person in Trinidad, as a citizen, to receive this award. I have a whole set of feelings I cannot even describe,” he told Sunday Newsday before the ceremo ny.

Gregg said as word spread that he was to re ceive a national award, he received numerous congrat ulatory messages from peo ple.

“I haven’t really been telling people but it has been heartwarming to see how many people were still messaging and sending me congratulations. It was real ly nice to see the community aspect of it.”

On April 7, Gregg was with his parents, Narisha and Gregg Snr, an uncle Ricardo Laban, two aunts and a family friend. They were among a group of about 11 people who simply wanted to enjoy a relaxing, stress-free day at the beach.

At the beach, two par ty boats anchored near the

shore and its exuberant pas sengers, eager to soak up the ambience, got off.

Laban was in the wa ter on a paddle board when he observed a man bathing between the two boats. The man, he realised, was strug gling to stay above water.

As it turned out, the man’s wife was calling for people to assist her husband but no one responded.

But Gregg heard her and leapt into action. As he swam toward the man, Gregg real ised there were people about six feet from him looking on helplessly.

His parents weren’t even aware of what was happen ing until they saw Gregg as sisting the man to the shore.

The man, who was shak en and exhausted from the ordeal, lay on the shore as his concerned family mem bers surrounded him.

They later learnt that the man was a doctor. He thanked Gregg profusely for saving his life.

Since the incident, Gregg was hailed as a hero among the students and teachers at school and in his community.

And while the praise has never stopped pouring in, the modest, unassum ing teenager insists he is no hero.

“I am not necessarily a hero. The textbook defini tion may say so but as a per son I feel the same way I was before (the incident).”

But he did admit that the recognition he has received

was life-changing.

“But I would not put my self out there as a hero, I don’t see it like that.”

He said he often reflects on the incident.

“So many things could have gone wrong but the thing aligned perfectly where everything was good. There were just so many variables where things weren’t supposed to hap pen but did happen. Since those things happened, ev erything fell into place like dominoes.”

The Form Five student said he has kept in touch with the doctor.

“We have gotten very close.”

Narisha said she is ex tremely proud of her son.

“It is amazing. We feel so proud of him,” she said, add ing the award was unexpect ed.

"He took full control and initiative and as parents we are immensely proud of him to know that he had contrib uted to society and to help ing the life of another person. There are no words for that.”

She said they are thank ful the President has seen it fit to acknowledge his deed with a national medal for bravery. Narisha is hoping it will inspire other young peo ple to greatness.

His father said, “Beyond anything else, I think he act ed instinctively when he saw the doctor in distress. And at the end of it to be recognised is not just a win for him but for other young people who would do positive things but may not be identified.

“And to be that type of role model for his genera tion, you know positive news sometimes doesn’t go as far as negative news.”

Gregg Snr said for a stu dent to be recognised nation ally is really hope for young er ones to know that they have a part to play in the so ciety.

“They must know that they don’t have to be a par ticular age to get a national award.” (T&T Newsday)

A rise in school fires has been observed in the past two years, which saw the North Ruimveldt Multilateral and North West Secondary School be ing destroyed.

Last month, the sod was turned for the recon struction of several sections of the North Ruimveldt Multilateral School in Georgetown to the tune of $566.9 million.

The damaged control panel

Gregg Alejandro Mannette

Regional

Hurricane Ian: 1 million without power as storm lashes Cuba

Around one million people have been left without power and one person has been killed after Hurricane Ian lashed Cuba.

Cuba-focused media out lets have also reported dam aged buildings across the country.

The category three hur ricane, packing wind speeds of up to 195 kilometres per hour (120mph), is now head ing for Florida and is expect ed to strengthen.

Parts of Florida have not faced such an intense hurri cane in about a century.

As of 21:00 GMT on Tuesday, the hurricane was growing stronger in the south-eastern Gulf of Mexico and moving north at 10mph, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) reports.

The storm was expect ed to pass over the Florida Keys on Tuesday night be fore approaching Florida's west coast today.

The NHC said in its bul letin that Ian could be a cat egory four hurricane by that point, with wind speeds top

ping 130mph. Over two mil lion people in Florida are under evacuation orders.

In Cuba, forecasters had warned that some regions could see up to 30cm (12in) of rain from Hurricane Ian.

Mayelin Suarez, a resi dent of Pinar del Rio, called the night the storm hit "the darkest of her life".

"We almost lost the roof off our house," she told Reuters. "My daughter, my husband and I tied it down with a rope to keep it from flying away."

Cuban President Miguel Diaz Canel visited the area and vowed that the province would rise "above adversi ty", the Cuban presidency tweeted.

A 43-year-old woman in the province was killed after the walls of her home col lapsed.

Cuban authorities de clared emergencies in six ar eas, with forecasters warn ing of storm surges on the coast, along with flash floods and mudslides. (Excerpt from BBC News)

Brazen bandit robs employee at San Fernando private hospital

Bermuda announces November 30 end to COVID emergency powers

Health Minister Kim Wilson on Monday announced that Bermuda’s emergency pow ers that had been in place to tackle the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic will be withdrawn at the end of November.

The pandemic has been blamed for 18, 422 infections and 148 deaths since March 2020.

Wilson said she would outline the moves when the House of Assembly met on Friday for the first time

since July, adding that the Government would not seek an extension of the public health emergency beyond November 30.

“More details regard ing the road map for ending the public health emergen cy, changes to border testing requirements, and chang es to current mask require ments will be shared with the House of Assembly on Friday, September 30.”

The current public health emergency orders have been in place since June 30, 2020,

following the state of emer gency put in place on April 1, 2020.

“Although we continue to contend with variants of concern, the world is in a different place than it was in 2020. Certainly, Bermuda is,” Wilson said, adding “we are fortunate that our com munity responded well to the Government’s vaccina tion campaign and the vac cine offered through partic ipating medical practices, health services and pharma cies. (Excerpt from CMC)

Abrazen

bandit pre tending to be job-hunt ing walked into Southern Specialist Medical Centre, Quenca Street, San Fernando, and robbed an em ployee of a pair of gold brace lets on Tuesday afternoon.

Police confirmed that around 14:00h, the man walked into the clinic's MRI department in the basement and encountered a reception ist who was sitting just in side the door.

She was wearing a pair of gold legacy bracelets she in herited from her mother on her death.

Police said the bandit

grabbed the bracelets off the receptionist’s wrist and ran out.

There were no security guards at the building at the time.

San Fernando Police told

the Newsday they were re lying on CCTV footage from the hospital and a descrip tion from the victim, and were confident the culprit would soon be held.(Trinidad Newsday)

Mexico: Prosecutor investigating missing students case resigns

The special prosecu tor leading Mexico’s investigation into the 2014 disappearances of dozens of students has re signed, President Andres

Manuel Lopez Obrador said, a day after the stu dents’ families marched to demand justice for their loved ones.

Omar Gomez Trejo was appointed to head the probe into the disappear ances of the 43 Ayotzinapa College student teachers in 2019, not long after Lopez Obrador came to power.

“He’s going to leave his post … because he dis agreed with the procedures that were followed,” Lopez Obrador said on Tuesday during a news conference following media reports about the Prosecutor’s de parture, without elaborat ing.

The Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez Human Rights Center, a Non-Governmental Organisation representing the students’ families, said in a statement on Tuesday that the resignation sig nalled unjustified interfer ence by superiors in the Attorney General’s Office, including “rushed accusa

Gomez Trejo appeared to have gained the trust of the families, but the Attorney General’s Office has come under fire for cancelling ar rest orders for several sus pects without explanation and for sensitive portions of a Truth Commission report being leaked to the press.

tions and cancelled arrest orders”.

They expressed confi dence in Gomez Trejo and his team’s work and called the developments “ex tremely concerning” for the pursuit of justice in the case.

Carrying photographs of the missing students, relatives and former class mates marched through Mexico City on Monday alongside thousands of sup porters to demand answers on the eight-year anniver sary of the disappearances.

Many of the parents have said they had a glim mer of hope last month when Mexico’s former top Prosecutor was arrest ed in relation to the case (Excerpt from Al Jazeera)

Hospitals

that rely on fuel-powered gen erators for electric ity in Haiti’s capital have warned they could be forced to close, as a gang blockade on the main fuel terminal in Port-au-Prince worsens in security in the Caribbean nation.

Port-au-Prince gangs earlier this month dug trenches and littered ship ping containers at entranc es to the Varreux terminal to protest a Government an nouncement that it planned to cut fuel subsidies due to their high cost.

Three-quarters of the ma jor hospitals in Haiti are af

fected by the lack of fuel, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said in a statement this week, citing data collected by the World Health Organisation.

“Some hospitals are un able to admit new patients and are preparing to close. Providing sterile conditions for medical interventions is becoming more challeng ing and conserving vaccines due to the disruption to coldchain facilities has become problematic,” UNICEF said.

It added that approxi mately 22,100 children un der age five, as well as more than 28,000 newborns, were at risk of not receiving “es

sential health care services” over the next four months.

Bernard Mevs Hospital in Port-au-Prince said on Tuesday that it was cut ting down on staffing and services as a result of the lack of fuel. “In the face of this difficult and sad reali ty, we cannot say when the hospital will be able to re sume normal operations if this shortage continues,” the hospital said in a statement shared on Facebook.

“We hope not to have to close completely,” the hospi tal said, calling for help in getting additional supplies of diesel. (Excerpt from Al Jazeera)

Haiti hospitals prepare to close as gangs blockade fuel supplies Children removed from Jewish sect's jungle compound in Mexico

Children

and older teenagers have been removed from the jungle compound of a Jewish sect in Mexico following a raid by Police, the BBC has learned.

Two members of Lev Tahor were arrested on sus picion of human trafficking and serious sexual offenc es, including rape, Israel's Foreign Ministry said.

A three-year-old child re moved from the compound has been flown to Israel.

Lev Tahor (Hebrew for Pure Heart) is known for ex tremist practices and impos ing a strict regime on mem bers.

It advocates child mar

riage, inflicts harsh pun ishments for even minor transgressions and requires women and girls as young as three years old to completely cover up with robes.

The stricture has earned the group the nickname the Jewish Taliban, because of seeming similarities with the dress code enforced by the Sunni Muslim extrem ist group which controls Afghanistan.

Police made their way into the compound 17.5 ki lometres (11 miles) north of Tapachula in Chiapas state on Friday morning.

They had been instruct ed by a federal judge to de tain several leaders suspect

ed of child abuse and rescue members of the sect, follow ing an investigation by the Attorney General's Special Prosecutor for Organised Crime (Femdo).

An Israeli source connect ed to the operation said the boys and girls were quickly separated from the rest of the group, because of fears their lives could be at risk from members trying to prevent them from being removed.

Twenty-six members were found in the com pound, among them Israelis with dual citizenships in cluding Canada, the US and Guatemala, Israel's Foreign Ministry said. (Excerpt from Al Jazeera)

A vintage car passes by debris caused by Hurricane Ian in Pinar del Rio, Cuba, September 27, 2022 [Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters]

People ride a motorcycle with empty petrol containers during a nationwide strike against rising fuel prices, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on September 26, 2022 [Ralph Tedy Erol/Reuters]

Around the World

OIL NEWS

Oil rises 2% from multi-month low on US Gulf output cuts, supply outlook

Oilrose about US$2 a barrel on Tuesday from a ninemonth low a day earlier, supported by supply curbs in the US Gulf of Mexico ahead of Hurricane Ian and as the US dollar eased from its strongest level in two decades.

Prices drew support from analyst expectations of possible supply cuts from the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies (OPEC+), which is to meet to set policy on Oct 5.

Brent crude settled at US$86.27 a barrel, up US$2.21, or 2.6 per cent On Monday it fell as low as US$83.65, the lowest since January. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude settled at US$78.50, up US$1.79, or 2 per cent.

US offshore oil producers said they were keeping an eye on Hurricane Ian's track as the powerful storm shut-in about 11 per cent of oil production in the US Gulf of Mexico as it barrelled toward Florida.

The outages may only provide a momentary reprieve for oil prices, said Bob Yawger of Mizuho in New York.

"The barrels will come back pretty soon, I would imagine," Yawger said, adding that there is a small chance the storm would change paths and force more shut-ins.

After shutting some its offshore crude production, BP Plc said the storm didn't pose a threat to its Gulf of Mexico assets and it was redeploying workers to oil platforms.

Crude prices had soared after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, with Brent in March coming close to its all-time high of US$147. Recently, worries about recession, high interest rates and dollar strength have weighed.

"Oil is currently under the influence of financial forces," said Tamas Varga of oil broker PVM.

The US dollar, which eased from a 20-year high, also helped support oil. A strong dollar makes crude more expensive for buyers using other currencies.

The oil price drop in recent months has raised speculation that OPEC+ could intervene. Iraq's Oil Minister on Monday said the group was monitoring prices and did not want a sharp increase or a collapse.

"Only a production cut by OPEC+ can break the negative momentum in the short run," said Giovanni Staunovo and Wayne Gordon of Swiss bank UBS.

The market is awaiting the latest US inventory reports, which analysts expect will show a 300,000-barrel increase in crude stocks. (Reuters)

Russia issues new nuclear warning as contested Ukraine referendums end

An ally of President Vladimir Putin is sued a stark new nu clear warning to Ukraine and the West on Tuesday as Russia began releasing re sults of referendums it bills as a prelude to it annexing four Ukrainian regions.

But an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told Reuters Kyiv would not be swayed by nuclear threats or by the annexation votes, and would press on with plans to retake all terri tory occupied by invading Russian forces.

Europe was investi gating on Tuesday what Germany and Denmark said were attacks which had caused major leaks into the Baltic Sea from two Russian pipelines at the centre of an energy stand

off with Moscow. But it re mained far from clear who might be behind the leaks.

Tuesday's nuclear warn ing by Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, is one of several issued by Putin

and his associates in recent weeks.

Diplomats say the nucle ar sabre-rattling is an at tempt by Moscow to scare the West into reducing its support for Kyiv by hint ing at using a tactical nu

clear weapon to defend the annexed territories of Ukraine.

For the first time Medvedev predicted that the NATO military alli ance would not directly en ter the Ukraine war even if Moscow struck Ukraine with nuclear weapons.

"I believe that NATO would not directly inter fere in the conflict even in this scenario," Medvedev said in a post on Telegram. "The demagogues across the ocean and in Europe are not going to die in a nuclear apocalypse."

Zelenskiy's adviser Mykhailo Podolyak brushed aside the comments, tell ing Reuters in an interview: "We will continue our work to de-occupy our territory regardless. (Excerpt from Reuters)

Iran protests: Death toll rises to 76 as crackdown intensifies – rights group

At least 76 protesters have been killed by Iranian security forc es during 11 days of unrest sparked by the death of a woman in custody, activists say.

Iran Human Rights (IHR), a Norway-based or ganisation, accused au thorities of using dispro portionate force and live ammunition to suppress the dissent.

State media have put the number of dead at 41, including several security personnel, and blamed "ri oters".

Hundreds of people have also been arrested, 20 of them journalists.

"The risk of torture and ill-treatment of protest ers is serious and the use

of live ammunition against protesters is an interna tional crime," said IHR's director Mahmood AmiryMoghaddam. "The world must defend the Iranian people's demands for their fundamental rights."

The UN human rights of fice also said it was very con cerned by the authorities' vi olent response and urged them to respect the right to protest peacefully.

The anti-government demonstrations have spread to more than 80 cities and towns across Iran since the funeral of Mahsa Amini on 17 September.

The 22-year-old Kurdish woman from the north-west ern city of Saqez had been visiting the capital, Tehran, on September 13 when she

Europe investigates 'attacks' on Russian gas pipelines to Europe

Europe was investigat ing on Tuesday what Germany, Denmark and Sweden said were at tacks which had caused ma jor leaks into the Baltic Sea from two Russian gas pipe lines at the centre of an ener gy standoff.

But it remained far from clear who might be behind the leaks that were first re ported on Monday or any foul play, if proven, on the Nord Stream pipelines that Russia and European part ners spent billions of dollars building.

German Economy Minister Robert Habeck told business leaders the leaks were due to targeted attacks on the infrastructure and Berlin now knew for sure "that they were not caused by natural occurrences or events or material fatigue."

leaks undermined the conti nent's energy security.

A senior Ukrainian of ficial called the incident a Russian attack to destabi lise Europe, without giving proof.

was arrested by morality po lice officers for allegedly vio lating the strict law requir ing women to cover their hair with a hijab, or head scarf.

She collapsed after be ing taken to a detention cen tre to be "educated" and died

in hospital following three days in a coma.

The police said Amini died after suffering sudden heart failure, but her fami ly have dismissed that and alleged that she was beat en by officers. (Excerpt from BBC News)

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman named PM

Minister by his younger brother, Khalid bin Salman, who was Deputy Defence Minister.

The royal decree reaf firmed all the other senior Ministers in their posts, in cluding Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan and Investment Minister Khalid al-Falih.

By appointing MBS as Prime Minister, a role previ ously – and typically – held by the king, the 86-year-old monarch continues a slow but steady transfer of pow er in the kingdom.

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been named the kingdom’s Prime Minister in a Cabinet re shuffle ordered by King Salman, according to a roy al decree published by the official Saudi Press Agency on Tuesday.

Sweden's and Denmark's Prime Ministers said the leaks were clearly caused by delib erate actions, with informa tion suggesting likely sabo tage, while Poland's premier blamed sabotage, without citing evidence.

Sweden's Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson told a news conference that two blasts had been detected in relation to the leaks and though this did not repre sent an attack on Sweden, her Government was in close contact with partners such as NATO and neigh bours such as Denmark and Germany concerning the de velopments.

Russia, which slashed gas deliveries to Europe after the West imposed sanctions over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, also said sabotage was a possibility and that the

Seismologists in Denmark and Sweden said they had registered two powerful blasts on Monday in the vicinity of the leaks. (Excerpt from Reuters)

Prince Mohammed is al ready de facto ruler of the world’s largest oil exporter, and the appointment forma lises his role as leader of the kingdom’s Government.

The crown prince, known by his initials MBS, previously served as depu ty Prime Minister as well as Defence Minister. He is being replaced as Defence

The royal decree on Tuesday did not state the reasons behind the ap pointment, but the staterun news agency SPA said that the king – who remains Head of State – will contin ue to chair Cabinet meet ings he attends.

In May, the king was hospitalised for medical ex aminations and treatments, SPA reported at the time.

The 37-year-old crown prince was already in charge of many of the king dom’s major portfolios, in cluding the economy, de fence, oil, and internal security. (Excerpt from Al Jazeera)

A man carries a bag on his head as travellers from Russia cross the border to Georgia at the Zemo Larsi/Verkhny Lars station, Georgia September 26, 2022

Gas bubbles from the Nord Stream 2 leak reaching surface of the Baltic Sea in the area shows disturbance of well over one kilometre diameter near Bornholm, Denmark, September 27, 2022

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been appointed Prime Minister, said a royal decree [Louiza Vradi/ Reuters]

DAILY HOROSCOPES

Look at the broader scope of a situa tion, and you'll gain perspective on what you can do to improve things. Rethink your connections and direction, and you'll discover whom you can trust.

21-April

Pay attention to partnerships. Don't neglect those who have an impact on your life and plans. Be accommodating and offer common-sense solutions that will buy you time.

Pull things together, do the work yourself and take the credit you deserve for your achievements. Get together with people who stimulate you mental ly and encourage you to focus on self-im provement.

A pick-me-up will be illuminat ing. Book a spa day or plan to engage in something that brightens your sur roundings or makes your place comfort able. Romance is on the rise.

21-July

23-Aug.

If you look for opportunities, you will find something that interests you. Get involved in a conversation that can offer insight into the pros and cons of some thing you want to pursue.

A unique relationship approach is fa vored. Your input will make a difference and change how someone feels about you. Take control if you want to have a say in things. Stand up and be counted.

23-Sept.

Consider where you put your ener gy and the returns you get for your hard work, and you'll get a clear picture of the changes you can make to improve your life. Action will be key.

23-Oct.

Let situations play out. It's best not to show your emotions or give anyone ammunition to disrupt your life. Listen carefully and gather information. You'll find helpful clues.

24-Nov.

A last-minute change someone makes will give you a reason to take note and make compensations that better suit your needs and lifestyle. Don't believe everything you hear.

23-Dec.

You'll get an inside view of some thing that will prompt you to shift how you do your job or the type of work you pursue. A change that entails a learning curve will pay off.

Revisit how you feel about your re lationships. Maintaining peace will be necessary if you want to avoid emotional instability. Pay attention to money mat ters and shared expenses.

A financial change is apparent. Do everything by the book, or you may end up owing money. Don't let an outsider represent you. Follow the rules and be transparent in everything you do.

20-March

AAG’s SA 10K Road Race set for November 6

The Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) is planning to host the 20th edition of the South American 10K Road Race on Sunday, November 6, from 3.30pm, and approximately 200 athletes from Guyana, the Caribbean and South America are being catered for.

This announcement was made on Monday, September 26, during an AAG press briefing in which President Aubrey Hutson divulged that changes would be made to the route in which the race is staged.

“This year, it’s going to be the 20th anniversary (of the event), so we’d like to put a little more into it, and we’d like this event to look as professional as we could in Guyana,” Hutson announced.

“There are quite a few changes that we would’ve made to the race in terms of where we run it. We know we would’ve tried the East Coast, then we went to West Demerara, and we contin ued to face the issue of traf fic congestion and traffic en

croaching into the event. So, we decided to use the World Athletics’ standards and standards used across the world in running this event against the flow of traffic. So, what we’re actually doing is forcing the Police and all that are involved in this event to actually close the route down for the running of this event,” Hutson explained.

In detailing the new

highlighted that the change is aimed at avoiding traffic and residential areas, and main taining control.

“We’re not going to be us ing the Children’s Monument as we did in the past, this is to alleviate some of the issues again that we faced with res idents being on the northern side of that road. We’re try ing to minimise the amount of residential areas that we have to pass,” the AAG pres ident has said.

The new route would see competitors starting in the Montrose/Happy Acres area of the East Coast Demerara, travelling along the north ern carriageway to the Kitty Roundabout, then on to the JB Latchmansingh Road then on to Thomas Lands and into the National Park, where the finish line would be near the gym rather than the Children’s Monument.

route that the 10K Road Race would be taking, Hutson

Hutson is confident that a large number of foreign ath letes would participate in this race, especially those from South America. He divulged, “There was further commit

ment, at the official congress that we had in Sao Paulo, from every South American country, their willingness to participate; we just have to work out with Copa Airlines the logistics of them getting here. So, we could expect to see most of those athletes showing up here from Friday

the 4th.”

He further explained that the AAG is hoping to have the competing athletes in Guyana by the morning of Friday, November 4, so as to allow for training on Friday afternoon and Saturday. The race is scheduled for run off at 3.30pm on Sunday,

CWI name three “Teams

November 6, and the first prize for both male and fe male athletes would include an 18 karat Guyanese gold medal and US$$1000.

In addition to the 10K Road race for seniors, the AAG would also be hosting its customary 1500M and 3000M races in the National Park.

the

from recent youth championships

Fourteen secondary schools in Region

Six, East BerbiceCorentyne, represented mainly by their head-teach ers, presented themselves at the St Francis Community Centre Training Hall last week to receive close to two million dollars’ worth of uni forms and cricket gear as part of the Berbice Cricket Board /Lochan Samkarran School Cricket programme.

Three of these beneficia ry schools were unrepresent ed at this simple distribution exercise, and would receive their supply of items later this week, when executives of the BCB visit them.

Each school received a package that consisted of 15 pairs of branded white crick et uniforms, two boxes of red balls, and some cricket gear, among which were bats, bat ting gloves, seed guards and wicket-keeping gloves.

The schools which benefited were Line Path Secondary, Skeldon High, Black Bush Polder, Manchester, Winifred Gaskin, Corentyne Comprehensive, JC Chandisingh, Lower Corentyne, Port Mourant,

Canje Secondary, Berbice High, Vryman’s Erven, BEI and Tutorial Academy. Absent were Tagore Memorial, Central Corentyne and New Amsterdam.

BCB President Hilbert Foster has urged the teach ers to take care of the items, as they were obtained at great cost to Mr Samkarran, an overseas-based business man. Foster disclosed that with donation of these items, the second phase of the BCB historic programme would start shortly, with coach es going into schools under the Namilco Thunderbolt Coaching project.

The BCB executives, which included Foster, Secretary Angela Haniff, Competitions Chairman Leslie Soloman and Asst Secretary Ameer Rahaman, discussed the schedule for the coaching programme, which would involve 15 coaches in Region Six. Foster has also said that at the end of the coaching, a squad of 60 players would be named by the coaches to participate in a special two-week coaching camp, which would be fol lowed by four different tour naments at the interzone

level.

The zones: West Berbice, New Amsterdam/ Canje, Lower Corentyne and Upper Corentyne, would each provide a champion. The four champions would then play in a special tour nament to decide on an over all Berbice Secondary School Champion.

Six schools in Region Five would shortly collect their uniforms and gear, and would also be involved in the coaching programme.

Foster has expressed much gratitude to Mr Samkarran for his assis tance, and has said that Samkarran’s contribution is most welcome. He has also assured the sponsor that the donated items would be used for their intended purpose, and disclosed that the BCB is confident that a batch of over 20 national players would emerge from the pro gramme over the next few months.

Several representatives of the beneficiary schools have expressed gratitude to the BCB and Mr Samkarran for the assistance received, and have pledged to take care of the items.

Cricket

West Indies (CWI) have recently named three “Rising Stars Teams of the Tournament” from the recently held Rising Stars Under-19, Under-17 and Under-15 Championships.

The Leeward Islands have won the Rising Stars Under-19 Championship presented by Winlott, which was played in St Vincent and the Grenadines. The Windward Islands won the Rising Stars Under-17 Championship held in Trinidad & Tobago, and Barbados captured the Rising Stars Under-15 Championship which was hosted by the Grenada Cricket Board.

Six players feature on both the Under-17 and Under-19 Teams of the Tournament. They are left-handed allrounder Nathan Edwards, who led the Leeward Islands to the Rising Stars Under-19 Championship title; and openers Rampertab Ramnath and Stephan Pascal, as well as batters Jordan Johnson, Joshua Dorne and Mavendra Dindyal.

Jordan and Edward were members of the West Indies Rising Stars U-19 team which played in the ICC Men’s U19 World Cup, hosted in the Caribbean by CWI earlier this year. Other members of that West Indies World Cup squad were batter

Ackeem Auguste, allrounder Johann Layne, wicket-keeper Carlon Bowen-Tuckett, fast bowler Isai Thorne, and off-spinner Onaje Amory. They were also named in the Rising Stars Under-19 Championship Team of the Tournament.

CWI Vice President Dr Kishore Shallow congratulated the players on their selection, and also spoke of the importance of investment in the Rising Stars championships as part of CWI’s Future Stars cricket development programme across the region.

“On behalf of CWI, I want to congratulate all the players who have been named in the three Rising Stars Teams of the Tournament," Dr Shallow has said. "This is a project we have implemented to add an additional incentive to the players’ pursuit of excellence and to help grow their selfconfidence. It rewards the leading performers who have emerged from what were three high-quality tournaments. At CWI, we have strengthened the development of young players, and we have increased investment in related programmes. This year, we welcomed the return of age-group red-ball and white-ball tournaments as part of our very busy Summer of Cricket.”

The Rising Stars age

group Championships play a crucial role in the growth and development of the next generation of West Indian cricketers. The Championships are a key component in the system for identifying the West Indies U19 Men’s and Women’s teams, providing the best opportunity to thrive and develop further with the goal of feeding into the West Indies Senior Men’s and Women’s teams. (Sportsmax)

Rising Stars Teams of the Tournament

Rising Stars Under-15: Darrius Batoosingh, Navin Boodwah, Shem Sargeant, Kemar Dixon, Brendan Boodoo, Matthew Miller, Pajay Nelson, Akobi Crichlow-Byer, Arif Khan, R’Jai Gittens, Arun Gainda; 12th man: Jorden Charles.

Rising Stars Under-17: Stephan Pascal, Rampertab Ramnath, Jordan Johnson, Joshua Dorne, Orlando James, Nathan Sealy, Divonie Joseph, Micah McKenzie, Nathan Edward, Solomon Bascombe, Jatario Prescod; 12th man: Mavendra Dindyal.

Rising Stars Under-19: Stephan Pascal, Rampertab Ramnath, Jordan Johnson, Ackeem Auguste, Joshua Dorne, Tarrique Edward, Nathan Edward, Carlon Bowen-Tuckett, Onaje Amory, Johann Layne, Isai Thorne; 12th man: Mavendra Dindyal.

AAG president, Aubrey Hutson

Flashback! A scene from last year’s South American 10K Road Race

Representatives of the Berbice Cricket Board posing with teachers after the presentation

Tickets for CPL 2022 Qualifier 2 match still available

Now that the Guyana Amazon Warriors (GAW) will have to play in Qualifier 2 of the Hero CPL tournament in order to cop a spot in the fi nal, Cricket fans are being reminded that tickets for that game are still available online and at the GAW Box Office in Camp Street.

“So, from now on, real ly, every game is going to be pretty much packed out. We’ve still got some tick ets remaining for tomorrow night. So that’s the exciting news, it’s that we’ve got an other batch of tickets going on sale on the CPL website, and will be on sale at the

Box Office as well on Camp Street,” Hero CPL Head of Marketing, Chris Watson, shared following yester day morning’s game at the National Stadium.

“There’s limited avail ability, but there’s still enough. Fans should get out there, get their tickets. Come down and get those last few tickets. Be the twelfth man again and get their team back to winning ways,” he encouraged.

The tickets remaining can either be purchased on line at cplt20.com or at the GAW Box Office at 233-234 Camp Street, Georgetown.

While Watson has en couraged persons to pur chase tickets, he has issued

YBG gearing to host Titan Bowl and Tertiary Knockout competition to close out 2022

a familiar warning. “What I would say to people is: nev er ever try to sell a ticket on a secondary market, or buy a ticket through a second ary market; because, you know, you’re only going to be disappointed. Then those tickets will be cancelled and people won’t be able to get entry. So, come down, have a great evening of enter tainment,” Watson has in formed.

As part of the rea son why he is encouraging fans to support their teams, Watson touched on the at mosphere in Guyana, and reception they have wit nessed in Guyana.

The CPL operative ex pressed, “It’s been huge! We’ve been waiting for this really since 2019. The last couple of years, for sport around the world, it’s been really challenging, but to be able to welcome fans back in such a way this year across all the locations, which have been phenomenal to cul minate with this. With the Cricket Carnival around it, the huge home support has been incredible, and we want to say ‘thank you’ to everyone who’s come out.”

The second Qualifier will be played at 7pm to day at the Guyana National Stadium.

Dawson John’s hat-trick leads Tapakuma FC past Good Hope

By TimoThy Jaikarran

The end of the year is al most here, and Youth Basketball Guyana (YBG) are on par in terms of accomplishing what they had set out to achieve for the calendar year. According to YBG co-founder Chris Bowman, they are looking to end the year with a bang when they host the Titan Bowl, which is set to com mence on December 8, 2022; and there is to be a Tertiary Knockout tournament to end the year.

In an interview with this publication, Bowman was asked what plans the YBG have for the year, and he re sponded as follows. “Well, it would be to end with the usu al Titan Bowl competition that will be from December 8, 2022. It is a competition that will bring together the

best nine schools in the U18 category in the country, so that should be very compet itive.

“But what we will also do this year is that we will have simultaneously a Tertiary Knockout tournament. Earlier, we had the Tertiary league, and in December we will have the Exxonmobil Tertiary Knockout tourna ment as part of our earlier sponsorship arrangement with Exxon.”

He further related that the earlier version of the Tertiary tournament was highly successful, and he opined that the Knockout tournament would be anoth er way of keeping the tertia

ry players active. Bowman clarified that, every school year, new players would en ter the tertiary system while some would graduate. he noted that this gives the ter tiary system a chance to re calibrate and reorganise.

“Strategically, that kind of tournament is well placed, and can really be useful for the tertiary schools. So, that and Titan Bowl, we are go ing to end the year with those two tournaments. Of course, funding continues to be a challenge since our re start, and as disclosed, had it not been for G-Boat, who fuelled us for much of the restart, and getting our or ganizational systems back

on track, and Exxon Mobil who are responsible for the National School Basketball Festival…not to minimize the value of the National Sports Commission and Edward B Beharry, but out side of those, it really has been a struggle,” Bowman shared.

Bowman noted that the YBG continue to run their programme on a shoe string-type of budget, and coming down to the closing of the year, it would require them to reach out to more sponsors to aid them cross over the finish line, so that youth basketball and grass roots basketball can have a good end-of-year showing.

Three goals scored within a 10-minute burst were all that was required by Tapakuma FC to secure full points and get their quest for top honours off to a winning start when competition in the Essequibo/Pomeroon Football Association (EPFA) leg of the GFF/NAMILCO Thunderbolt Flour Power Under-17 Intra Association League continued on Sunday afternoon last at the Anna Regina Community Centre Ground.

Having already lost their opening match one week ear lier to Henrietta United 1-2, the Good Hope lads were hoping for a better perfor mance this time around, but the Tapakuma team had oth er ideas, and were not in the mood to allow their oppo nents to throw them off their plan.

Exchanges were back and forth as both teams sought to take the initial ad vantage and wrest the ini tiative from the other. It took some time for either to score, and when the deadlock was finally broken, it was Tapakuma who were respon sible. Dawson John was the player who rocked the nets to hand his side the advan tage in the 20th minute, and this changed the fortune of his team. Eight minutes lat er, John was again on target to double the lead. The seal er, John’s third of the match, came in the 30th minute, as no more goals materialised for the remainder of proceed ings. Tapakuma pocketed all

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three points. Matches will continue on Sunday at the same venue.

Tallawahs end Kings’ campaign to set up qualifier with Warriors tonight

However, the Afghan star Mohammad Nabi had other plans. After Green depart ed with the score on 115-8 in 17.3 overs, Nabi took con trol. He slammed Kesrick Williams for 19 runs in the final over, and as Tallawahs

ended on 148-8 in 20 overs, Nabi ended on a 15-ball 31.

Wiese was the pick of the Kings’ bowlers with 3-19 in three overs. Tallawahs and Warriors are now set to lock horns in a sold-out game at Providence.

By Brandon Corlette

Led by a collective bowling effort and Mohammad Nabi's finishing touches, the Jamaica Tallawahs defeat ed the St Lucia Kings by 33 runs in the Eliminator match of the 2022 Hero Caribbean Premier League, played at the Guyana National Stadium at Providence.

This win for Tallawahs sets up the second Qualifier with home team Guyana Amazon Warriors this evening from 19:00h at Providence.

Tallawahs posted 1488 in their 20 overs, and bowled out Kings for 115 in 18 overs. In the chase, which was watched by a fair-sized gathering, Kings lost CPL 2022 lead ing run-scorer Johnson Charles for three when he

was bowled by the consis tent Mohammad Amir at 10-1. Captain Faf du Plessis continued to strike the ball cleanly, but he watched Niroshan Dickwella perish for seven and Roston Chase go by way of a soft dismiss al for one. Both batsmen fell to left-arm spinner Imad Wasim, and Jamaica con tinued to hunt wickets.

Kings’ skipper Faf took advantage of the power play, with Kings scoring 54 runs in that period. A low Fabian Allen delivery rat tled the stumps of Faf for a 26-ball 41, to send the South African out of the game after he had slammed two sixes and four fours in his knock.

Englishman Adam Hose and Mark Deyal took Kings to the halfway stage with the score on 74-4 in ten overs. Allen continued to bowl stump to stump,

and his deliveries kept low. Mark Deyal played a poor shot and was cleaned up for nine by Nabi, while Matthew Forde ran past an Allen delivery. Allen then sent back David Wiese for a golden duck with anoth er ball that kept low and hit the stumps at 81-7 in 12 overs.

Hose, who was bowled by Nabi, laboured for his 18

Rovman Powell had to drop anchor. Powell failed to get going, as he made a 14-ball seven. The Jamaican skip per was playing across the line when he was trapped leg-before by Royal at 47-3 in 8.3 overs.

Raymon Reifer and Brooks then surpassed their 50-run stand in 32 balls, as Tallawahs flexed their mus cles. Brooks had looked

from 26 balls. Jeavor Royal was Nabi's third victim of the evening. Alzarri Joseph looked to threaten, but was left stranded for 28 from 18 as Kings were bowled out for 115 in 18 overs.

Nabi completed a good all-round game with 3-10 in his quota, and Allen ended with 3-28 in his four overs.

Earlier, Kings won the toss and opted to field first. The Jamaica Tallawahs lost the openers early with only 21 runs on the board. Brandon King was soft ened up and then trapped leg-before by the impres sive Alzarri Joseph for sev en, and Kennar Lewis was trapped by the promising young right-arm seamer Matthew Forde.

In the powerplay, Tallawahs were 29-2, and West Indies play ers Shamarh Brooks and

classy and set to score big, but he held out and was caught off David Wiese for a constructive 47, which in cluded four timely sixes and one four.

At 98-4 in 14.2 overs, Fabian Allen took cen tre stage at Providence, but his struggles contin ued this season, as he made a second-ball duck. Allen spooned one to short cover and gave Wiese his second wicket.

A set Reifer, who made 25, was then sent back by the impressive Joseph, and the Tallawahs were fall ing apart. The Barbadian Reifer struck two fours and one six in his knock.

Imad Wasim (07) and Chris Green (02) failed to make an impact with the bat, as Kings bowlers where aiming to pull off the ultimate restriction job.

Jeavor

18 Ov

Wiese,

(Adam Hose,

9-99(Jeavor Royal, 16.4 ov)115-10 (Williams, 18) BOWLING O-M-R-W Mohammad Amir 3-0-34-2 Chris Green 3-0-21-0 Imad Wasim 4-0-21-2

Fabian Allen 4-0-28-3 Mohammad Nabi 3.5-0-10-3

Royals into CPL final ...

Khan reached his landmark 50 from 34 balls, but was dismissed with the next ball, caught by Smith off Shepherd in the final over, with the score on 1935.

Royals ended with 195-5, the joint highest score this season, while Shepherd claimed 2-29 in four overs to end as the pick of the bowlers. Royals’ innings included 19 sixes.

For the Warriors, it was a difficult day with the ball, as Keemo Paul, who bowled only 1.4 overs for 23 runs, left the field with an injury.

Warriors will play the second Qualifier today, Wednesday September 28, from 19:00h at Providence.

WRONG FROM THE START

Warriors got it wrong from the inception, Shakib has said. "From the start, we were not up to the mark. We did not bowl the way we should have bowled, and we did not look

good on the field as well. So, I think the bowling and fielding let us down. I did not think it was a 200 wick et. Rahkeem played really well, but we should have bowled between to him. We have another opportunity (in Qualifier 2), we have to come back stronger and do the things that were going well for us, and we need to repeat that."

Shakib also noted that the Warriors had a plan for bowling to Cornwall, but failed to execute. "We need to come back well and ex ecute at our best," Shakib has said.

The star all-round er added: "We played four out of five here. When we arrived here, we were at the bottom of the table, and now we are in a good position, we have another chance of being in the fi nal."

Despite the defeat, Shakib is confident that the Warriors can bounce back and reach the final.

Allen claimed three wickets on a good evening

Wiese removed Fabian Allen

Nabi finished the innings in style for Tallawahs

Faf is cleaned up by Allen

FROM BACK PAGE

ROYALS INTO FINAL OF CPL 2022

-after breaking Amazon Warriors’ winning streak of 4 in 4

By Brandon Corlette

The Guyana Amazon Warriors’ winning streak of four wins in four matches ended on Tuesday morning when the Barbados Royals took a com prehensive 87-run win over them at the Guyana National Stadium at Providence.

Led by a destructive 91 from Rahkeem Cornwall and a half-century from Azam Khan, Royals posted 195-5 in 20 overs, and then bowled out the Amazon Warriors for 108 in 17.4 overs.

In the chase, the Warriors lost the prolific striker Rahmanullah Gurbaz for a single run when he was bowled by the Royals skip per Kyle Mayers. Shai Hope joined Chandrapaul Hemraj, but the duo struggled to get going. And after scoring 16 runs from 11 balls, Hope’s stumps were sent flying by the left-arm seamer Ramon Simmonds with the Warriors’ score was at 26-2.

Shakib Al Hasan (01) was then trapped by Simmonds, and Hemraj was bowled by the mystery man Mujeeb as the Warriors lost four wickets in the powerplay while scor ing only 36 runs. That rocky start pegged the Warriors back in the chase, and Keemo Paul and Shimron Hetmyer

unsuccessfully attempted a repair job, but the Royals would have none of that. After a 29-run stand, Paul, who played some innovative shots, was out for 13, while Shimron Hetmyer eventually went for 37.

Romario Shepherd (01), Odean Smith (01) and Imran Tahir (07) all failed to reach double figures, while Junior Sinclair offered some resistance with his un beaten 13 as Warriors ended on 108 all out in 17.4 overs.

Ramon Simmonds ended with 3-17, while Cornwall and Mujeeb each had two wickets.

The Guyana Amazon Warriors had earlier won the toss and opted to bowl first in glorious sunshine. The Royals were off to a flyer, posting 56 runs for the open ing stand in the powerplay.

Berbician Junior Sinclair tested Cornwall and Kyle Mayers with his spin, and de spite being struck for a six off the first ball of his spell, four balls after the powerplay, he sent Mayers packing when he bowled him for 26 runs from 20 balls, with the Royals’ score at 56-1. Mayers’s in nings included three sixes and one four.

Imran Tahir then put on his running shoes and trapped the Irishman Harry Tector for a duck, with the score at 63-2.

Cornwall was then joined by Azam Khan, and the duo rode their luck as they played fearless cricket. The few Barbados Royals’ fans were very vocifer ous while the Guyanese fans were shocked into silence as Cornwall de stroyed the Warriors’ bowling.

The big Cornwall reached his half-century with a maximum off Odean Smith within 39 balls, and Khan and Cornwall then ‘dealt with’ Tahir, slamming him for 21 runs in the 16th over.

Cornwall eventually de parted after scoring 91 runs from 54 balls. After slamming 11 sixes and two fours in his dominant innings, he was caught at long-on by Romario Shepherd, and the Royals were at 153-3 in 16.2 overs.

After that 90-run third wicket partnership be tween these two burly fig ures Cornwall and Khan had been broken, Khan continued to take advantage of the good batting surface, and motored along to his fifty. Najibullah Zadran, however, had a short stay at the crease before he was caught by Hetmyer for eight off Shepherd, and the Royals’ score was now 162-4 in 17.5 overs.

Warriors to battle Tallawahs for final with Royals

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)