THE Everest Cricket Club (ECC) ground has become the home in recent years for the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples Affairs’ Heritage Month Sports celebrations.

This year’s sporting activities and family fun day will be held under the theme, “Maintaining our Traditional Practices while promoting a Green Economy”.

Activities are scheduled to commence at 10:00hrs daily and all of the events will be held at ECC ground, except the swimming events, which will be hosted at the National Aquatic Centre at Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara.

Activities will run from Friday, September 20, to Sunday, September 22, 2018.

The Heritage Games will begin with a grand opening ceremony commencing at 10:00hrs on Friday, after which the events would promptly begin.

There will be three days of power-packed activities which would showcase preliminary matches in cricket, football, volleyball, archery and swimming on Friday and Saturday, paving the way for the finals to be staged on Sunday.

The Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs is expecting that more than 600 sportsmen and sportswomen from Indigenous villages across Guyana’s 10 regions will be competing in the Games, and several cash prizes and trophies will be up for the taking.

In addition to the headline sports, the weekend’s activities would offer a number of novelty sports, such as: piwari-drinking, hot tume poteating, firewood bursting competition, lime-and-spoon race, and other traditional novelty games.

Gold Rush in Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) are currently the reigning male football champions, while Pariuma Village in Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) are the female champions.

In cricket, Laluni will look to defend their title in the male category, while St Cuthbert’s Mission in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) will defend the female version title.