-three  scooters to be given away
HAVING forged a successful partnership with the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) in organising the nationwide 10/10 softball cricket competition, the Guyana Softball League (GSL) has found a new ally in Kares Engineering and Bushy Park Sawmills (KEBPS), who will be pumping close to $25m in a nationwide tapeball 10/10 tournament for teams and schools in both the male and female categories. At the launching ceremony yesterday which took place at the Everest Cricket Club (ECC), managing director of KEBPS Radesh Rameshwar expressed how thankful he was to be given the opportunity to invest in the growth of the nation via the game of tapeball cricket.
“As you know, the foundation of unity for one common goal lies in the social cohesion of our communities and that is one of the purposes of this tournament, while the other is to bring forth the talent that lies in each community, giving them the opportunity to display their skills by playing against each other,” said Rameshwar.
He further stated that the prizes being offered by the organizers are the best that has ever been offered in tapeball cricket in Guyana, while at the same time, the tournament in itself will be the biggest and best tapeball tournament ever to be held in Guyana.
According to Rameshwar, when the tournament reaches the Super 16 stage, matches will be played in Linden, Essequibo and Berbice, with the semi finals and finals being held in Georgetown, with either, ECC, Georgetown Cricket Club or Guyana National Stadium, hosting same.
Director of Sport (DS) within the National Sports Commission (NSC) Neil Kumar said the programme falls straight into the programme the Ministry of Sports and the NSC has been targeting recently, which is to increase sports programmes in the communities and schools.
“From time to time, national associations has been coming to us and asking us for money to go on an overseas trip. But we have been paying more attention on sports in the community and the schools, and following the GT&T softball tournament, this one falls in very fittingly into our programme.
What I do appreciate also and very distinctively, is the fact that the sponsor has sought it fit to not only have the communities around the country involved in the tournament, but the schools who will be categorically placed to compete amongst themselves,” said Kumar.
Kumar lauded the sponsor for donating $200,000 to the victorious school in the tournament, but urged that instead of using same for the development of the school, it should go towards the building of a multi-purpose court.
“It would be nice to see the school who wins their category of the competition, use the money towards the building of a multi-purpose court and once that is done,  I would personally play my part by donating basketball and netball facilities to the school.”
The male champions  will pocket $1m and a trophy, while the second, third and fourth place finishers will receive $400,000, $150,000 and $100,000 each along with trophies, with the man of the match in the finals and the man of the tournament receiving one scooter each.
The highest individual scorer and the bowler with the best individual bowling figures will pocket $25,000 each and with the tournament being played on a knockout basis in the respective zones, all zone winners will receive $10,000 and a trophy.
On the distaff side, the victorious female team will pocket $500,000 and a trophy, leaving the runner-up team to go home with $250,000 and a trophy, while the woman of the finals will ride home one scooter, highest individual scorer ($10,000) and all zone winners $10,000 and a trophy.
For the school’s category, both the male and female winners will receive $200,000 that will go towards a sports project, with the organizer agreeing with Kumar’s suggestion during the launching, while the player of the finals in both categories will receive one laptop each.
Spectators attending the matches will not be left out, as they will have the opportunity to win caps, bats, t-shirts and other items in the novelty games that will take place.