THE President and Members of the Berbice Cricket Board (BCB) have offered congratulations to Berbice cricketing hero Shimron Hetmyer on his brilliant century against Bangladesh, at the Guyana National Stadium on Wednesday in the second one-day international.

Every Berbician is filled with pride, as the 21-year-old continues to uphold the high standard of our cricket that was set by legends like Rohan Kanhai, Basil Butcher and Alvin Kallicharran.

At this tender age, he has already scored two ODI centuries and joined Roy Fredericks and Clayton Lambert as the other Berbicians to have scored ODI centuries.

The BCB would like to encourage the young Hetmyer to uphold his high standards, since thousands of youths in the Ancient County look up to the Young Warrior player as a positive role model.

This innings would serve as an inspiration to those who hope to follow in his footsteps. Berbice’s cricket is on the rise again and with players like Hetmyer, Anthony Bramble, Devindra Bishoo, Romario Shepherd, Veersammy Permaul and Keon Joseph, we are confident that they would inspire our upcoming stars to greater heights.

The BCB would like to assure every youth in the county that its members are committed to working hard to make sure that every one of them has equal opportunities to fulfil his/her full potential on the cricket field.

We would also like to encourage all clubs to continue their outstanding work of producing players for Berbice and Guyana despite efforts by the powers of our country’s cricket to frustrate our efforts.

We would also like to call on Cricket West Indies (CWI) to invest in Hetmyer, as he is the future of the West Indies by naming him the vice-captain of the Test and ODI teams.

He may be young in age but has the maturity of an outstanding leader and we are confident that he can be the next Graeme Smith.

Best wishes are also extended to the entire West Indies team as they strive for a series victory.