..-Gayle, Bravo and Sarwan to lead teams
FIRST there was the Stanford Twenty20 and then the Indian Premier League (IPL) and the Indian Cricket League (ICL) all held internationally, but for the first time ever here in Guyana, there will be the President’s Premiere League (PPL) set for next weekend at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence.

A plethora of present West Indies cricket stars will be converging on the fastest drying cricket venue in the Caribbean, representing the CARICOM Superstars XI, who will be going up against the carefully selected President’s XI in two Twenty20 matches, which will have a winner take all prize of US$5,000 each.

Being organised by the Friends of Cricket committee, the two matches promise to be of an international flavour, if one should take a closer look at the list of players on show for the teams in the two matches.

For the CARICOM Superstars XI, West Indies skipper and explosive batsman Christopher Gayle, who will lead the team in the final match, along with Dwayne and Darren Bravo, Dinesh Ramdin, Lendl Simmons, Kieron Pollard and the Ganga siblings in Darren and Sherwin, along with the fiery Fidel Edwards will be appearing.

On the other side of the paper lies the President’s XI led by former West Indies skipper and the first man to lift the Stanford T20 trophy on the Regional scene back in 2006 Ramnaresh Sarwan, Narsingh Deonarine, Lennox Cush and Esaun Crandon.

But other stars such as Xavier Marshall, Ravi Rampaul, Dave Mohammed, former West Indies Under-19 captain and vice captain respectively Leon Johnson and Steven Jacobs, Christopher Barnwell, Sewnarine Chattergoon, Assad Fudadin and national spin twins Veerasammy Permaul and Devendra Bishoo will be gracing the venue with their presence.

Apart from the two games which have an entrance fee of $1,000. from which proceeds will go to charity, there will be a fireworks display prior to the first delivery of the first match next Friday and also at the end of the presentation ceremony of the second match the following day.

A live band will be on hand to entertain the fans gathered at the venue whose gates will be opened from 16:00h each day, before, during and after the matches, as the organisers seek to make it a Carnival atmosphere at the venue.

Meanwhile, president of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) Chetram Singh had earlier told Chronicle Sports that his body has no jurisdiction over the locally selected players who will be competing in the matches.

“As was the scenario with the privately organised DJ Stress T20 Festival held at the same venue earlier this year, the GCB does not have any stranglehold on its players competing in the upcoming matches, as we have no contractual agreements with them.”

The 59 year- old Singh further states, “Had we had such in place, then we could have placed a lid on them from competing ever since the DJ Stress festival, but seeing there is no contract, whosoever is selected to compete can do so at his own freewill.”

The teams which will be decked out in coloured uniforms and which will see the CARICOM Superstars being led by Dwayne Bravo in the first match, with Gayle taking over the reins for the second will be selected from:

CARICOM Superstars XI: Christopher Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Xavier Marshall, Darren Bravo, Darren Ganga, Sherwin Ganga, Dinesh Ramdin, Kieron Pollard, Lendl Simmons, Ravi Rampaul, Fidel Edwards and Dave Mohammed.

President’s XI from: Ramnaresh Sarwan, Sewnarine Chattergoon, Narsingh Deonarine, Assad Fudadin, Esaun Crandon, Lennox Cush, Christopher Barnwell, Imran Khan, Steven Jacobs, Leon Johnson, Darwin Christian, Brandon Bess, Veerasammy Permaul and Devendra Bishoo.