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FOLLOWING a successful inaugural tournament last year, which saw Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) get past Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) in an exciting and enthralling final at the GCC ground, the Roger Harper led Georgetown Cricket Association (GCA) has once again joined forces with Queensway Company to organise the second annual GCA/Queensway Cup Open knockout tournament. All clubs, whether first or second division that are affiliated to the GCA, will be doing battle for supremacy in this tournament which will be played with white balls and coloured clothing and have lucrative prizes up for grabs, including Most Valuable Player during the semifinals.
At yesterday’s launching which took place on the upper floor of the GCC pavilion, former Guyana and West Indies skipper and Chairman of the Interim Management Committee, Clive Lloyd, expressed his disappointment at an ugly incident between the GCC and DCC second division teams and called for more discipline to be exhibited during the tournament.
“I am very disappointed at the recent incident between two distinguished clubs, namely GCC which is the oldest club in the world and my club DCC who recently celebrated their 100th anniversary.
“The performance there was not conducive for the game and I am strictly disappointed with their behaviour, because cricket is about honesty, integrity and fair play,” said Lloyd.
He added, “I am hoping that the members of the DCC realised they made a mistake and their president will apologise to Roger Harper, the president of the GCA and his team, who are trying their best to bring cricket up to a level in Georgetown at the moment.”
Lloyd reminded his audience which also included Managing Director of Queensway Muhammad Qualander, Mark Harper and national player Christopher Barnwell, of the days when a former GCC president Justice Persaud climbed the stairs and the reaction given when he is seen.
“GCC is not just an ordinary club; it is a very prestigious one. DCC as well has got a lot of tradition and I sincerely hope that all the youngsters who are representing DCC, will realise that the club they represent is one that is prestigious and one that would not tolerate that sort of behavior,” stated Lloyd.
Lloyd lauded the GCA president for the hard work he has been putting in over the years, while he thanked Qualander for his continued vote of confidence in the GCA and its executives.
In his brief remarks, Qualander said it was a pleasure to be partnering with the GCA once again, calling it an honour while he described it as a pleasure to have Lloyd present at yesterday’s launching ceremony.
“The sport of cricket requires a tremendous amount of discipline, dedication and concentration. Without these traits, no player or administrator can have success.
Here in Guyana and the wider Caribbean Region, it is very important for our young people to have role models from whom they can take these positive examples and transfer them to their daily lives and cricket certainly requires this,” said Qualander.
Qualander said the sport of cricket serves as another positive example of Caribbean integration and the West Indies having fielded a unified team for a very long time and their success with the unified approach to cricket provided another example of the benefit of Regional integration.
Like Lloyd, Qualander alluded to the incident that occurred last Sunday, adding that it is not something persons would want to see in the sport, not only in Georgetown and the Queensway Open Cup tournament, but the Caribbean as a whole.
The GCA head give a brief overview of last year’s tournament, especially the final which had two centuries scored (one on each side), while he reminded those in attendance, among whom were members of clubs affiliated to the GCA, of the lucrative prizes up for grabs during this year’s competition.
Meanwhile, the draw and umpires for the first round of matches which bowls off this weekend (Saturday and Sunday), were done the previous night by the GCA’s Cricket Competitions Committee that is headed by Shawn Massiah.
Three firs-round matches will be played on Saturday, with Police Sports Club (PSC) taking on Malteenoes Sports Club (MSC) at the MSC ground under the orders of Colin Alfred and Zaheer Mohammed.
Everest will host Muslim Youth Organisation at Camp Road, Edward Bowen and Edward Nicholls calling play and Transport Sports Club will oppose University of Guyana at DCC, Hortence Isaacs and Montgomery Chester being the men in the middle.
On Sunday, Third Class will face GNIC at MSC (Joseph Jeffrey and Zaheer Mohammed), Vikings and Guyana Defence Force (GDF) will do battle at GDF (Shannon Crawford and Edward Bowen) while Chester and Matthew Kissoon will officiate in the contest between GYO and Ace Warriors that will be played at UG.
All matches will commence at 09:30hrs and, according to Massiah, those second division clubs who are not in possession of coloured clothing, have been given the permission by the GCA to play in coloored tops and white pants in the tournament which is expected to culminate with the grand final on Sunday October 28 at a venue to be named.
All of the clubs received a water cooler, while members of the media, Harper and Lloyd received tokens from the sponsor with the Georgetown Cricket Umpires and Scorers Association being the recipients of a jersey and caps, compliments also of Qualander.
At yesterday’s launching which took place on the upper floor of the GCC pavilion, former Guyana and West Indies skipper and Chairman of the Interim Management Committee, Clive Lloyd, expressed his disappointment at an ugly incident between the GCC and DCC second division teams and called for more discipline to be exhibited during the tournament.
“I am very disappointed at the recent incident between two distinguished clubs, namely GCC which is the oldest club in the world and my club DCC who recently celebrated their 100th anniversary.
“The performance there was not conducive for the game and I am strictly disappointed with their behaviour, because cricket is about honesty, integrity and fair play,” said Lloyd.
He added, “I am hoping that the members of the DCC realised they made a mistake and their president will apologise to Roger Harper, the president of the GCA and his team, who are trying their best to bring cricket up to a level in Georgetown at the moment.”
Lloyd reminded his audience which also included Managing Director of Queensway Muhammad Qualander, Mark Harper and national player Christopher Barnwell, of the days when a former GCC president Justice Persaud climbed the stairs and the reaction given when he is seen.
“GCC is not just an ordinary club; it is a very prestigious one. DCC as well has got a lot of tradition and I sincerely hope that all the youngsters who are representing DCC, will realise that the club they represent is one that is prestigious and one that would not tolerate that sort of behavior,” stated Lloyd.
Lloyd lauded the GCA president for the hard work he has been putting in over the years, while he thanked Qualander for his continued vote of confidence in the GCA and its executives.
In his brief remarks, Qualander said it was a pleasure to be partnering with the GCA once again, calling it an honour while he described it as a pleasure to have Lloyd present at yesterday’s launching ceremony.
“The sport of cricket requires a tremendous amount of discipline, dedication and concentration. Without these traits, no player or administrator can have success.
Here in Guyana and the wider Caribbean Region, it is very important for our young people to have role models from whom they can take these positive examples and transfer them to their daily lives and cricket certainly requires this,” said Qualander.
Qualander said the sport of cricket serves as another positive example of Caribbean integration and the West Indies having fielded a unified team for a very long time and their success with the unified approach to cricket provided another example of the benefit of Regional integration.
Like Lloyd, Qualander alluded to the incident that occurred last Sunday, adding that it is not something persons would want to see in the sport, not only in Georgetown and the Queensway Open Cup tournament, but the Caribbean as a whole.
The GCA head give a brief overview of last year’s tournament, especially the final which had two centuries scored (one on each side), while he reminded those in attendance, among whom were members of clubs affiliated to the GCA, of the lucrative prizes up for grabs during this year’s competition.
Meanwhile, the draw and umpires for the first round of matches which bowls off this weekend (Saturday and Sunday), were done the previous night by the GCA’s Cricket Competitions Committee that is headed by Shawn Massiah.
Three firs-round matches will be played on Saturday, with Police Sports Club (PSC) taking on Malteenoes Sports Club (MSC) at the MSC ground under the orders of Colin Alfred and Zaheer Mohammed.
Everest will host Muslim Youth Organisation at Camp Road, Edward Bowen and Edward Nicholls calling play and Transport Sports Club will oppose University of Guyana at DCC, Hortence Isaacs and Montgomery Chester being the men in the middle.
On Sunday, Third Class will face GNIC at MSC (Joseph Jeffrey and Zaheer Mohammed), Vikings and Guyana Defence Force (GDF) will do battle at GDF (Shannon Crawford and Edward Bowen) while Chester and Matthew Kissoon will officiate in the contest between GYO and Ace Warriors that will be played at UG.
All matches will commence at 09:30hrs and, according to Massiah, those second division clubs who are not in possession of coloured clothing, have been given the permission by the GCA to play in coloored tops and white pants in the tournament which is expected to culminate with the grand final on Sunday October 28 at a venue to be named.
All of the clubs received a water cooler, while members of the media, Harper and Lloyd received tokens from the sponsor with the Georgetown Cricket Umpires and Scorers Association being the recipients of a jersey and caps, compliments also of Qualander.
