WHILE most cricket administrators continue to pay lip service to the development of the game in Guyana, the Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club (RHTY&SC) is continuing to implement new programmes to further advance the game and its main asset, the players.

Hence, the club last Thursday launched two new cricket tournaments for Secondary Schools in the Lower and Central Corentyne areas, namely an Under-15 tournament for players born on or after September 1, 1999 and a Female tournament, with sponsorship from the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI).
Club Secretary/CEO Hilbert Foster, at the launching ceremony held at the bank’s Port Mourant branch, said the club was dedicated to the development of the game at all levels and the main objective of the two competitions was to identify new talent for the Ancient County.
The schools to be involved are Lower Corentyne, J.C. Chandisingh, Port Mourant, Corentyne Comprehensive, Manchester High School, Winifred Gaskin and Central Corentyne, with the male Under-15 knock-out tournament being a 30-overs-per-side affair while the female competition takes on a tapeball format consisting of 12 overs per side.
The tournaments start this Thursday (January 30) with a March Past of the seven male teams, while in the female category, Corentyne Comprehensive and J.C. Chandisingh Secondary will get competition under way at 10:00hrs. The male teams of both schools would clash at 12:30hrs.
The Lower Corentyne Secondary teams would take on their Port Mourant counterparts on Friday at 10:00hrs and 12:30hrs while on the same day, Central Corentyne Secondary and Manchester High School will face off at the Kennard’s Memorial Cricket Ground.
Winifred Gaskin Secondary School have drawn the bye for the first round and the semifinals are scheduled for February 6 and 7 at the Area ‘H’ Ground, while the finals would be played on Thursday, February 13 at the same venue.
At the opening, each school team would be displaying banners promoting the ‘Say Yes to Education and No to Drugs and Suicide Messages’ and 10 less fortunate students from each of the schools would receive educational packages during the finals of the tournament while the top two teams would receive trophies and medals.
Foster said the club was confident that the tournaments would achieve their objectives and would lift the game to a higher level in the Corentyne area, even as he expressed gratitude to the Management and Staff of GBTI for their sponsorship of the two tournaments at short notice. He pledged that they will be well organised and successful.
Branch Manager Mr Ghoeblall Mahadeo, in handing over the cheque, said that GBTI was pleased to be associated with the RHTY&SC, an organisation with an unmatched list of activities and achievements, and expressed confidence that the tournaments would be well organised and that new and exciting talent would emerge.
“GBTI is fully conscious of its corporate responsibility and would continue to invest in sports and education,” Mahadeo stated while wishing the schools success