-Government lauds duo for years of service
TOP Government officials last night lauded the Kashif and Shanghai Organisation for its excellent record of bringing football of the highest quality to the fore, with Acting President Samuel Hinds urging that efforts be made to have the game played in secondary schools throughout the country.
Minister of Culture Youth and Sport (MCYS) Dr Frank Anthony announced an initiative saying “one of the things that we have agreed with them is for better footballers and I think that come next year, they would be sponsoring 100 young people, 100 Guyanese school children so that we can train them and make this is really a good developmental initiative for football in this country.”
These remarks came at the end of the official march past of 19 of the 20 clubs competing in this year’s tournament, along with one of two exhibition matches wherein the National Under-20 team defeated a Linden Under-23 unit 4-2.
And as promised, two stalwart footballers in Collie ‘Hitman’ Hercules and Charles ‘Lily’ Pollard were honoured with gold rings compliments of Kings Jewelry World who accommodated a special request made by the K&S Organization, in appreciation of the players outstanding years of service to Guyana’s football.
Acting President Hinds said “I would like to rise again and call again for the widespread playing of soccer in all of our secondary schools all across our country. We think that football can be one of the great unifiers across our country.
It is a relatively inexpensive game to organize. So I want to challenge the Kashif and Shanghai Organization and also the MCYS along with the Ministry of Education to organize soccer in all our secondary schools so that it could be a feeding ground for tournaments such as this, as it matters whether you win or lose, but how you play the game.”
Dr Anthony was proud to state” They have persevered for the last 21 years. So let’s give them a big round of applause for such perseverance. This tournament has also grown in stature and because of the Kashif and Shanghai Organisation, I think Guyanese football is better known around the world.
Last year we had the presence of the mighty King Pele right here with us and the movie that was done by television station Globo has shown Guyanese football right around the world and because of that, we are better known in the world of football.
We have also seen Guyanese footballers develop and grow over the years. It has been one of the best competitions that we have in this country and because of such a competition we have seen many players come through here and go out and represent Guyana at various international competitions.”
He continued to state; “We have also seen that this has become perhaps the best spectator event for football in Guyana. And they have been able to full this stadium, a feat that very few local teams can accomplish.  So again they have been doing great work in this area.”
In his usual opening remarks, Greg ‘Kashif’ Muhammad thanked God for his grace to have them organize another tournament despite the numerous hurdles faced, while he took the opportunity to thank the sponsors in both the public and private sector for their support.
“We give thanks for the unique opportunity that we have been afforded to make a contribution to sport and more particularly, to football in our country over the years. This would not have been possible first without the grace of God, as secondly without the support of both the private and public sector to which we say thank you”, stated Muhammad.
In relation to the presentation that was done to both Hercules and Pollard, Muhammad said the K&S Organization was doing same from the bottom of their hearts, while taking the opportunity to thank the makers King’s Jewellery World for their innovative idea.
In the first of two exhibition games of the tournament, Olvis Mitchell scored twice in the 2nd and 19 minute, along with Sheldon Holder’s 30th and Marco Marcus 31st minute strikes for the National Under-20 side who dominated their mining town opposition to take a 4-0 lead at lemon time.
The second half saw Linden trying its best to reduce the score-line and Randy Jerome did just that with a goal in the 59th minute and the scores were halved in the 78th minute when Orand Willis netted Linden’s second goal which eventually was the last for the visitors.
The tournament officially gets underway on Wednesday with a double header at the Georgetown Football Club ground, where Santos face Riddim Squad from 18:00h, while defending champions BK International Western Tigers oppose Bakewell Buxton Stars from 20:00h.