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THE Guyana Cricket Board (GCB), in recognising Narsingh Deonarine’s recent milestone in the WICB regional tournament cricket which concluded yesterday, held a dinner in his honour at the Water Chris Hotel on Monday night.
The dinner served as a congratulatory function held in light of Deonarine becoming the first person to score 1 000 runs in the WICB regional tournament and to recognise his selection as a member of the West Indies team to tour England later this month.
The night revolved around the attendees including the guest of honour sharing anecdotes and banter after dinner tributes were paid.
Those attending included members of the Guyana and Barbados first class teams as well as members of the GCB’s executive.
Public Relations Officer of the GCB, Terry Holder, who was master of ceremonies extended congratulations to the man-of-the-hour, and also stated that despite the fact that the Guyanese team was having a disastrous season it was very encouraging that Deonarine had performed as well as he did.
Holder also expressed that whatever the future may hold for the young cricketer nothing would be able to take away from the fact that he is the first to have scored (1 000) runs in the first-class season.
Holder buttressed this by saying, “No one who has seen Narsingh bat can question and challenge his undoubted talent.” However, he added, “It is not just talent but by virtue of his good performance that Narsingh is now the holder of the record for the highest aggregate in the first class season.”
President of the GCB, Chetram Singh, stressed the resounding theme of Guyana’s poor performance in the tournament and said that he hopes that not only the other batsmen but also the bowlers can emulate Deonarine’s performance.
Director of Sport Neil Kumar in speaking with Chronicle Sport said that Deonarine’s accomplishing such a feat is good for Guyana’s cricket.
“With Guyana being at the bottom of the table the fact is remarkable that Deonarine is so outstanding,” said Kumar.
Kumar said he was proud that Guyana has the ICC cricketer-of-the-year and that we now have three Guyanese players on the West Indies team. The Director of Sport believes that the outstanding Deonarine gained the success because of his hard work and discipline and he wishes him the best in his time with the West Indies.
“My dreams came true,” said Deonarine, even though he was not able to give a formal speech, due to a sore throat; he tried his best to utter this statement and a few words of appreciation.
