FOLLOWING an emphatic, energetic and exciting, inaugural tournament last year, local entertainers Hits and Jams Entertainment (H&J) has started the organising process for this year’s Jamzone Masters’ Cup, a spinoff of their annually held Jamzone Springbreak Festivities. While party fans look forward earnestly to this event, which has, among other attractions, a swimsuit competition, hosted at the Splashmin’s Resort, and numerous shows with both local and foreign musical artistes having the public swooning to their melodies. The Masters’ Cup was added to the list of events last year.
Embattled West Indies opener Christopher Gayle, Dwayne Smith, Dwayne Bravo, Lendl Simmons, Fidel Edwards, Dale Richards, Kieron Pollard, Suleiman Benn, Jerome Taylor and Krishmar Santokie had all graced the Guyana National Stadium with their presence for their respective teams.
However, it was the Universal DVD Club-sponsored Berbice Titans who came out on top, to maintain their record as the best T20 team in the Land of Many Waters, when they defeated Gizmos and Gadgets Georgetown Pitbulls in the final, to walk away with the $2M top prize.
This year, the Guyana National Stadium, Providence, is expected to come alive on Friday, August 17, and Sunday August 19 when the second edition is held. The other three teams who have received invitations to participate, namely Gizmos and Gadgets Georgetown Pitbulls, Hotel Tower New Line Cavaliers and H&J All Stars will definitely look to end the Titans’ reign in locally organised t20 tournaments.
The record shows that since they defeated New Line Cavaliers to take the DJ Stress t20 tournament in 2009, they have played unbeaten in all t20 tournaments held here in Guyana, even romping to victory in the Berbice Cricket Board/Berbice Chamber of Commerce and Development-organised Independence Cup last May.
However, the members of the Berbice Cricket Board, who take pride in whatever they get into, whether it is on the field or off it, have left no stone unturned in their bid to have their best players represent the Ancient County once again.
To this effect, they named and held several coaching sessions in all forms of the game, an Elite squad that comprises players of the calibre of Veerasammy Permaul, Devendra Bishoo, Narsingh Deonarine, Assad Fudadin, Royston Crandon and Jonathan Foo, who all have West Indies experience, whether it is at the Test or ‘A’ team level.
What is more surprising about the Titans’ win in this tournament, is that they did it without any guest player, as they refused to take up that option that was given to them by the promoters of the tournament.
That option is available to them once again this year and word is, they will not be taking it up, opting to enter the tournament with a core of players who have been training together for the past eight months, under the BCB’s Senior Elite Training programme, with some of the players exuding confidence of another victory in this year’s tournament.
The composition of the other teams is yet to be made public, but cricket-lovers and enthusiasts can expect to see players such as Dwayne Bravo, who struck the lone century of the tournament in last year’s third-place encounter, Gayle, Benn, Santokie, Russell, Dwayne Smith, Simmons, Pollard and some other big guns, gracing the venue with their presence once again.
Each team is allowed a maximum of 14 players in their squad, inclusive of four international or regional players in a playing 11 and, according to the invitation letter sent to the four participating teams, they are all asked to submit their complete squad by July 28