– Tournament bowls off tomorrow

THE Essequibo Cricket Board (ECB) will field a female Inter-county team for the upcoming Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) cricket tournaments, which get underway tomorrow.

The disclosure was made on Thursday by secretary of the ECB, Otto Christiani, who pointed out that the board had worked feverishly over the past months to improve the state of female cricket in the county.

This new development came after the ECB had found itself in a colossal mess last February, when it had failed to assemble a female squad to participate in this year’s GCB Under-19 T20 Inter-county tournament.

Back then, president of the ECB, Fizul Bacchus, indicated to Chronicle Sport, that the failure to assemble a team lay solely on the parents or guardians, whom he said are very skeptical about sending their female child/children out of the region.

Bacchus, who is also the acting president of the GCB, further mentioned that based on the decision of the parents or guardians, the ECB was reluctant to take up that added responsibility.

However, Christiani said then the issue was a straight forward one, adding that there is no female cricket played in Essequibo, and as such the board could not have fielded a team.

But with additional pressure from the cricketing public in Essequibo, female cricket has been in the forefront of the board’s agenda for the past few months.

Further, the Inter-county tournament will feature two formats, the 50 overs and the T20 versions. In the 50-over version, Demerara will take on Essequibo in round one on Sunday at the Lusignan Community Centre (LCC), before Essequibo face off against Berbice the following day at the same venue. Berbice will then play Demerara on April 9.

Meanwhile, the T20 format will take place on three consecutive days with Essequibo battling Demerara and Berbice on May 11 and 12 respectively at Everest Cricket Club ground, before Berbice and Demerara square off on April 13 at the GCC ground, Bourda. The team with the most points will be declared champions.