THE Berbice Cricket Board (BCB) hosted its 2018 Awards ceremony on Sunday last at the Albion Community Centre to reward players, coaches and officials. The event, after a three-year hiatus, was well received by the gathering as the BCB honoured several individuals for their sterling performances during 2017.

Headlining the list of awardees was West Indies player, Devendra Bishoo, who was adjudged International Male Cricketer of the year. However, Bishoo was not on hand to receive his prize as he is presently in Antigua at a West Indies training camp. Bishoo has so far been a stand-out performer in Test matches for West Indies, taking 102 wickets with 8 for 49 being his best figures.

Meanwhile, Veersammy Permaul won the Regional 4-Day Cricketer of the year award.
Guest Speaker of the event, Attorney-at-Law Arudranauth Gossai delivered the feature presentation. Gossai shared that he played cricket in his youth days at the club level in Berbice, and then commended the current BCB executives for reviving the annual awards ceremony. Gossai urged the BCB to use cricket as a unifying force to keep us together and fight against any force that may try to divide us. He further emphasised the need for working together regardless of differences in clubs, for the benefit of cricket.

In addition, President of the BCB, Hilbert Foster in his remarks, gave a thorough description of the progress of cricket in Berbice since taking over the helm. Foster stressed, “Ladies and Gentlemen, I am delighted to inform you that in just 3 months we have raised a total of $ 5, 274,000.00 in sponsorship for Berbice cricket”. Foster shared some

upcoming projects that the board promises to fulfil: The Annual Berbice Cricket Board Magazine, sponsored by Brian Ramphal; the Annual Cricket Academy in July, sponsored by Dr. Tulsi Dyal Singh at a cost of $370 000.00 in which some 70 youths will be involved; a countrywide coaching programme; father of the year award, just to list a few.

Berbice for 2018 has won the Male Under-15 title, the Male Under-19 fifty-overs and three-day title and the Female 50-over title.
The 2018 list of Awardees are:
Berbice under-15 Player, Marvin Prashad
Berbice under 17 Player, Kevlon Anderson
Berbice under-19 Player–Kevin Sinclair
Berbice under-19 Female Player–Shabika Gajnabi
Most improved Youth Cricketer – Karran Arjpaul
Most improved Senior Cricketer – Romario Shepherd
Female Cricketer of the Year–Sabrina Munroe
Youth Coach of the Year–Julian Moore
Senior Coach of the year–Esaun Crandon
Female Coach of the year–Tremayne Smartt
School of the Year–Lower Corentyne Secondary School
Most Improved club–Blairmont Cricket Club
Club of the Year–Albion Community Centre Cricket Club
Umpires of the year–Imran Moakan
–Moses Ramphal
Regional 4-Day Cricketer–Veerasammy Permaul
Regional 50-Overs–Romario Shepherd
International Cricketer of the year–Devendra Bishoo
Additionally, Special Awards went to Joseph Simon for his contribution in umpiring; Patrick Gray for being a long-standing official in club cricket, while recognitions were given to Julian Moore and Winston Smith for attaining level 3 coaching certificates.