A plethora of local cricket stars, both present and future is set to converge at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence on Sunday 4th July, when the second annual DJ Stress Twenty20 cricket festival bowls off with two semi-finals and a final which will be played under the lights.
According to tournament organiser Paul Bonar aka DJ Stress, this year’s tournament is expected to be bigger and better than the inaugural one last year, which saw New Line Aqua Farm sponsored New Line Cavaliers coming out on top over Gizmos and Gadgets (G&G) Georgetown Pitbulls in the final.
“While I must say that last year’s tournament was a huge success, I plan with the aid of corporate Guyana and their sponsorship, to make this one a bigger and better tournament, wherein the fans and players can all be involved.
Apart from the action in the middle, there will be rides for the children who will be admitted free once they are under the age of 12, along with a free ice cream as no one will be left out of the action in one way or the other” said Bonar.
New Line Cavaliers under new sponsors Hotel Tower, and led by national middle- order batsman Gajanand Singh with support from the pugnacious Andrew Lyght Jnr, Paul Wintz, Chien Gittens and Cowen Ismond will be back to defend the title they won both at the GNS in May and at the Albion Community Centre ground in July of last year.
Guyana and West Indies middle order batsman Narsingh Deonarine is the new guest player added to the roster of Hotel Tower’s NLC, the lone team who walks with a paid scorer to all their matches irrespective of its status, along with fellow Berbician Richard Ramdeen.
While the composition of the G&G Georgetown Pitbulls team is not yet known, what cricket fans, more so those who are interested in this format of the gentleman’s game can look forward to on the day in question is a competitive unit bent on defeating any team placed in front of them, especially Hotel Tower’s NLC, a team many teams are looking to defeat locally.
Team number three in this year’s tournament is expected to be the Universal DVD club with its two locations in New Amsterdam and Canje, sponsored Berbice Titans a team that may comprise players in the likes of Delbert Hicks, Renwick Batson, Karamdat Bissoondial and Arthley Bailey.
The fourth team in this tournament that has been sanctioned and included on the calendars of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) is not yet known, but according to Bonar, one will be selected that will be very competitive with the other three.
As is customary with Bonar’s promotions of this kind, an exhibition match is carded for the day and this time around, a Sean Devers led Media XI which includes players  Ravendra Mandholall, Brandon Cabose, Kizan Brummell, John Ramsingh, Lyndon Wilson and Guyana and West Indies Blind cricket coach Bharat Mangru will face an opponent who is yet to be decided.
As the day draws near for what will be another memorable day for local cricket fans, Bonar will be revealing to the public, further developments with regards to this event.