THE inaugural David Persaud Investments (DPI) Under-19 Cricket Tournament was officially launched in the pavilion of the Everest Cricket Club (ECC), yesterday, and is scheduled to bowl off next week, weather-permitting. Present at the launching was President of the Georgetown Cricket Association (GCA) Roger Harper along with other executives of the GCA and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of DPI Christopher Persaud.
Persaud said, it was decided that the DPL U-19 event would be home to Everest because his late father, David Persaud, was a stalwart of the sport having captained the ECC to numerous senior titles in his earlier years and was also the President of the ECC for a number of years.
He stated that it was his father’s passion to be involved in the sport, and the discipline he exerted, which rubs off on his team, lead them to success.
Persaud went on to say that he hopes this tournament would be played in a manner his father would appreciate and also produce some well rounded cricketers since the sport has declined in the country in recent years.
Responding to the CEO’s remarks, Harper guaranteed that the tournament will be run in a disciplined manner and is expected to be the start of making the youth cricketers into well rounded persons.
Harper stated that the association has designed tournaments to strategically target and develop important aspects of the youngsters’ game.
The new format is a 100-over match which is similar to the format of a test match which will see a team batting a maximum of 55 overs in an innings. There can be a winner and a loser and a match can also be drawn.
Meanwhile, a total of 13 cricket teams which includes two schools will be vying for top honours in the GCA organised event that was also modified by the association. The 13 teams were yesterday randomly placed into two groups.
Group A consists of GCA Defending Champions ECC, which was automatically placed in the group, Malteenoes Sports Club (MSC), Transport Sports Club (TSC) ‘A’, Ace Warriors, St. Stanislaus College, TSC ‘B’ and Ghandi Youth Organisation (GYO).
In Group B, the GCA runner up team Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) was automatically placed in this group and will battle with Queen’s College, Third-Class, Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) A and B-teams and Guyana National Industrial Corporation (GNIC).
The first round of matches was also disclosed yesterday as Group A will see ECC versus MSC, TSC-A battles Ace Warriors, St. Stanislaus versus TSC-B while GYO receives the first bye.
In Group B GCC will play QC, Third Class will challenge DCC-B and GNIC will battle DCC-A.
However,  because of the uncertainty of playing dates due to the inclement weather, no venue for these matches have been decided either.