… It’s an honour to win such prestigious award, says Paul

GUYANA snatched the headlines at CWI/WIPA sixth annual awards ceremony, Wednesday night in Barbados, with three awards.

Fast-rising all-rounder Keemo Paul was voted Windies Emerging Cricketer-of-the-Year, while the Guyana Jaguars, four-time winners of the Professional Cricket League (PCL) Four-day tournament, were voted First-Class Team-of-the-Year, with the Guyana Under-19 side named Windies Under-19 Team-of-the-Year.

The award capped off a good week for Paul, who has been called up to the Test side for the final match against Sri Lanka.
Paul, who was part of Windies Under-19 World Cup-winning squad in 2016 and made his senior international debut this year, is expected to make his Test debut with the Windies leading the Test series against Sri Lanka, 1-0, after the second Test finished in a draw. The final fixture is a day/night Test, starting June 23.

In an invited comment yesterday, the 20-year-old Paul said, “It is an honour to win such a prestigious award. It’s a great feeling – a dream come through, to win such a prestigious award … definitely. It’s an honour to be presented with such award, an award I will cherish,” Paul beamed.

Head coach of the Guyana Jaguars, Esaun Crandon, is extremely overjoyed that the team’s hard work has not gone unnoticed.
He lauded all involved, especially the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) for its commitment towards the continued growth of the game in Guyana. Crandon is of the opinion that the GCB is undoubtedly one of the key factors responsible for the progression of the game locally.

Crandon, the former national fast bowler is of the opinion that the PCL also plays a major role in Guyana’s success story.
Meanwhile, Shai Hope and Stafanie Taylor took home top honours. Hope, 24, who made twin hundreds in a famous Windies Test win at Headingley last summer, picked up three prizes, including the top Cricketer-of-the-Year award. The wicketkeeper batsman was also declared Best Test and Best One-day international cricketer.

Taylor, the Windies Women captain and the No.2 all-rounder on the MRF Tyres ICC ODI Rankings, was named Cricketer-of-the-Year and ODI Cricketer-of-the-Year among women.
Evin Lewis, who has a strike-rate of 160.36 in Twenty20 Internationals, and Deandra Dottin, who in October became the first woman with two T20I centuries, won the T20I honours.

The full list of winners is:
Windies Cricketer-of-the-Year – Shai Hope
Windies Test Cricketer-of-the-Year – Shai Hope
Windies ODI Cricketer-of-the-Year – Shai Hope
Windies T20 Cricketer-of-the-Year – Evin Lewis
Windies Emerging Cricketer-of-the-Year – Keemo Paul
Windies Women’s T20 Cricketer-of-the-Year – Deandra Dottin
Windies Women’s ODI Cricketer-of-the-Year – Stafanie Taylor
Windies Women Cricketer-of-the-Year – Stafanie Taylor
CWI Lifetime Achievement Award – Carol Whilby-Maxwell
WIPA Lifetime Achievement Award – Dawnley Joseph
First Class Team-of-the-Year – Guyana
Regional Under-19 Team-of-the-Year – Guyana
First Class Four-Day Cricketer-of-the-Year – Devon Smith
First Class 50-Over Cricketer-of-the-Year – Roston Chase
Caribbean T20 Cricketer-of-the-Year – Chadwick Walton
Windies Under-19 Cricketer-of-the-Year – Kirstan Kallicharan
Atlantic/WIPA in the Community Awardee – Rodney Sieunarine
CWI/WIPA Outstanding Foundation Awardee – The Marlon Samuels Foundation
Windies Umpire-of-the-Year – Joel Wilson