BOTH Kuru-Kuru Warriors of Timehri and Samatta Point of Grove yesterday received their championship trophy and cash prize for their respective victories in this year’s Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport (MCYS)-organised Inter-block football competition.
At a simple ceremony held in the offices of Parliamentary Secretary within the MCYS, Steve Ninvalle, who conceptualised the idea of the tournament three years ago, both Wayne Francois and Sherlock Hutson who were the tournament coordinators for the villages of Grove and Timehri respectively, lauded the MCYS for the tournament.
Led by the tournament’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) Royston Adams, Samatta Point defeated defending champions Grove to take the Grove version of the tournament while Kuru Kuru disposed of Ice House Road 3-1 in their Timehri zone final, to cart off the $25 000 first prize and trophy.
According to Ninvalle, who is also the president of the Guyana Amateur Boxing Association (GABA), the organisers tried to produce a better tournament each year, looking back at the mistakes of the previous year and correcting them.
“This tournament is a good thing to get the youths away from the ills of society. Every year we look at the problems that occurred the previous year and ironed them out so that the present tournament would be a better one and I must say that it is improving,” said Ninvalle.
He continued, “Each year we have a better product which fits snuggly into the MCYS’ mould of having persons kept physically fit, as there is no age limit and we have players as old as 45 years, and over, representing teams.
Added to that, the tournament is being held in areas where football has not been a predominant sport, as the coordinators are taking the sport to the people and not the other way around and having said that, I would like to predict a brighter and bigger event next year.”
Francois congratulated the MCYS for organising a tournament that has taken the youths of the two villages away from the ills of society, and called on Corporate Guyana to offer their support to the competition.
“This is a good gesture by the Ministry and I tip my hat to Mr Ninvalle for coming up with such a brilliant idea three years ago and still have it going up to today. However, it would be great if Corporate Guyana can come on board and make it a bigger and better tournament which showcases grassroots footballers.”
Hutson joined Francois in calling on Corporate Guyana to come forward and supplement the ministry’s budget with their input in the tournament, especially since teams like Kuru Kuru who are not a dominant force in football, can enter this year’s tournament and come out victorious.
“As Mr Ninvalle stated, the organisers are working to make every tournament a better one than the previous. I can safely say, based on this year’s results that the teams are working assiduously towards improving on their previous year’s performance, with Kuru Kuru being the perfect example.