Head of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) Chetram Singh addresses the media in the GCB boardroom yesterday.

“The executives of the GCB had discussed at length, the present state of our cricket, with a view to stopping the losing trend our national teams have been enduring in recent times, none more so than the senior team” said Singh.

Singh stated that the GCB will be expending between G$15m to $20m, as they seek to tackle cricket at the senior, junior including the under-15 and 19 as well as the women’s level of the game, as they look to take Guyana’s cricket back to the glory days of yore.

“Having had a look at our competitions to see where they fit in, a cricket committee was formed and met two weeks ago, wherein a plan was drawn up to help take Guyana’s cricket back on the upward trend of success once again.”

The 59 year- old Singh who has been at the helm of local cricket for the past 11 years further stated, “The GCB depends on the counties to run off their competitions, from which we organise our own, but with the counties finding it difficult to do so, we have decided to step in and organise our competitions at the various levels.”

“Over the last two years, no three day competition has been organised by the three counties, hence we will be doing so by assisting the counties namely Demerara and Berbice with three- day competitions while Essequibo will have a two- day competition” said Singh.

The GCB will be sponsoring the respective tournaments which will be played at the Under-15, women’s and senior men’s level, en bloc which means that all teams will have to do is turn up and play proper cricket.

“The tournaments will first be played in the counties, before the GCB takes control at the national level, wherein the top teams of each county, who will be rewarded for their efforts, will meet in a national play off to determine the champion club.”

“While some may look at the financial side of things in the senior men’s tournament which carries an attractive $1m in prizes, the objective of the GCB is to have our players bat for long periods, as we have noticed that our batsmen at the senior level have not been batting for longer periods, even when presented with the opportunity to do so on pitches that are conducive for batting” Singh stated.

The GCB head who was surrounded by his marketing consultant Ramsay Ali, GCB secretary Anand Sanassie , two of his vice-presidents in Faizal Bacchus and Bissoondial Singh, and Public Relations Officer (PRO) Terrence Holder, also outlined his plans for youth and women’s cricket to the media.

“We will be tackling youth cricket at the school level, with clubs being encouraged to participate in the tournament, which will be a national one similar to that of the senior men’s tournament, with an added boost, wherein the coach of the winning district will be the man in charge of Guyana’s 2010 Under-15 team” said Singh.

He further stated, “This will serve as an added boost to the coach, who will be looking for maximum output from his players, as it is an honour for one to coach a national team and this tournament will be sponsored in its entirety by the GCB, once a sponsor is not identified for same.”

With regards to the women’s version of the game, Singh highlighted the tremendous support shown during the recently held West Indies limited overs tournament, even when Guyana was not playing, which was a heartening sight to behold.

“We have seen the tremendous interest shown by the public in this form of the game and this has moved us to throw our support behind them, hence we will be organising tournaments which will keep them active throughout the year, with all costs being borne by the GCB.”

Singh is warning all clubs to have reserve players to play in other competitions, as mediocrity would not be accepted from any club who is scheduled to compete in a GCB competition and fails to do so because of the unavailability of a full strength team.

The GCB plans to meet with schools in the various district of their school competition, with the Georgetown District being the first to do so tomorrow, as they intend to have this year’s tournament which commences next Wednesday, and climaxes on the 27th November, to be run in an effective manner.

To this end, tournament coordinator Colin Europe who has been executing such duties for a number of years stated that meetings were held with the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, from which a favourable response was received.

“In previous years, we had to navigate our tournament with that of the Guyana Teacher’s Union (GTU) athletics competition and this year we are looking to move away from that, hence we met with the PS and got a positive answer, wherein our tournament will not coincide with the GTU’s athletics meet, which will enable schools to field full strength teams in the competition.”

These programmes will commence shortly and in order for the GCB to meet the required cost as well as have same being run on a yearly basis instead of a one off event, fund raising activities will be held, as they seek to garner funds to upkeep the programmes.

According to Ali, the programmes outlined by Singh must be sustained for a period of time and the GCB has a macro plan which involves many activities which will be used to raise funds to ensure their programmes not only remain a success story, but is around to serve the cricketers.

One such activity, will be the Guyana Cricket Festival which is slated to be held at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence on the 23rd and 24th October and involves Barbados, Jamaica, USA and Guyana competing in two semi-final Twenty20 on the first day, with the third place play off and final set for the second day under lights.

“One thing that must be noted is these teams will be full strength ones who will be coming in earlier to compete in the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Regional limited overs tournament which Guyana will be hosting and is set to commence on the 28th of October.”

“Sponsorship has been sought and received from Carib Beer, Digicel and El Dorado for this tournament which has a first prize of US$10,000. from the US$15,000. prize money up for grabs and this tournament has the blessings of the WICB and the three other competing teams’ board” said Singh.

Ali chimed in and stated that full co-operation has been given to the board by certain individuals who will be working behind the scenes to ensure this tournament is a success story, as they know and understand fully the reason for same being held.

“We have commitments from a few television stations around Guyana who have promised to give us one free advertisement for every one we placed with them, whilst some of the personnel involved have vowed to do so at little or no cost at all.”

“The response from corporate Guyana has been very good in the initial stages of this two day tournament which will see the three other teams arriving on the 21st of October at full strength” said Ali.

Meanwhile, the GCB’s four day Inter-county competition will commence on the 22nd September, with Demerara opposing Essequibo at the Anna Regina ground and Berbice and a Rest Team battling at the Demerara Cricket Club ground.

According to Singh, returning to the old format of the three- day inter-county tournament following last year’s four team tournament which was farcically contested as selectors called in players after a period of time in the middle was an easy task for the GCB, as that tournament was not competitive.

The schedule also have Essequibo playing all their matches at home at the Anna Regina ground and Singh said this was so, as the GCB wanted to utilise the hostels in Essequibo and Demerara, with a view of cutting cost in the tournament.

There will be a lull in the tournament during the month of October, but action will resume inNovember, as the GCB thought it best to continue with same around the time when preparations for the Regional four- day competition would commence.