… Baksh, Singh, Seeram and Dass share MVP awards

By Frederick Halley

TORONTO, Canada – Several players stole the spotlight when the Ontario Masters Softball Cricket Club (OMSCC) staged its 18th annual presentation, dinner and dance at the Queen Palace Banquet Hall, Scarborough here on Saturday night.

Among the outstanding performers were Azeez Baksh, Matbar Bryan Singh, Shiv Seeram, Nitram Dass and the evergreen Rovendra Mandolall.
Baksh, who represented Impac in the Division One, was voted the Most Valuable Player as did Singh in Division Two while Seeram shared MVP honours with Dass in the Over-50 category.

Baksh, who was unavoidably absent from the gala occasion, scored 276 runs from nine matches with an average of 92.00 and also took 14 wickets at 7.64 runs apiece to crown a fine all-round season. Singh, on the other hand, totalled exactly 500 runs, inclusive of two centuries, averaging 100 while claiming eight wickets at 12.25 per wicket.

Seeram, who played for both his native Guyana and his adopted country Canada, took the MVP in the Over-50 class for the second consecutive year while leading Skeldon to championship honours with a brilliant century in the final versus Caribbean Sensation.
Dass (True Legends) who volunteered the cost of his trophy to the league, scored the most runs (292) including a knock of 123 while averaging 58.40.

Mandolall, a former Guyana Under-19 batsman, who represented Warriors Sports Club in Division One, copped a special award for scoring the most runs (307). He also starred in the final with a man-of-the-match performance.
The Captain-of-the-Year award, introduced last year, and sponsored by Dr Rudy Singh, went to Elite’s Arjune Persaud.

Five players, Ganesh Ramraj (Caribbean Sensation and Miracles), Geenarine Ram (Skeldon and Elite), Monty Dass (True Legends), Rudy Tulsie Ramdial (Friendship Masters and Caribbean Sensation) and Ryan Bhup (Ramblers) collected special awards.

Ramraj had the distinction of scoring two centuries (108 and 104); Ram hit 123; Dass had scores of 96 and 92; Ramdial registered 106 while Bhup had the unique honour of recording the highest score (153) of the season and slamming 93. Another centurion was former Guyana and Essequibo Inter-county player Jaimini Singh, whose 104 was scored against GT Bannas in the Over-50 category.

Ron Etwaroo of Ramblers, and Suresh Ragoonauth of Pegasus registered the best economy rates. Etwaroo (Division Two) had a fantastic 2.71 runs per wicket while Ragoonauth (Division One) ended the season with 3.60.
Prizes for the most catches during the season went to Nick Permaul of Elite (six), Suresh Persaud of True Leagends (six) and Mandolall of Warriors (four).

There were triple feat awards for Robin Gopaul (Friendship Masters), Royson Naicken (GT Bannas), Suren Persaud (Impac) and Seokumar Ron Singh. Gopaul, Naicken and Persaud registered three half-centuries while Singh took 11 wickets while claiming four for nine.
Warriors player Terry Mathura received a special plaque for being part of three winning teams in 2018, a feat believed to be the first of its kind for organised softball in Ontario.

Mathura represented Skeldon in the Over-50 category, Warriors in the Over-40 and Car Tecc in the Ontario Softball Cricket League (OSCL) Conference B playoff championships.
Special recognition awards went to Bato Shewraj, Coreen Persaud, Alvin Budhram, Teddy Hussain, Allan Omrow, Nari Khan, Indira Singh, Chantel Lall, Natasha Sue, Jaydeo Singh, Leila Brittania, Dolly Kanhai, Jayden Barrett, Sabita Dass, Norman Garcia, Martha Dyal and Frencho Rampersaud.

After failing in two attempts to capture the coveted Division One title, Warriors Cricket Club finally broke the jinx by winning the 2018 crown, registering a seven-wicket over Dant Masters while Ramblers defeated Reliance Lions in a nail-biting Division Two final, having already been assured of the divisional title. Last year’s playoff Division One winner Our Own had to settle for the regular season crown.

Skeldon carted off the Over-50 division playoffs title after finishing second behind Caribbean Sensation in the regular season.
A new Inter-county champion was crowned after Berbice defeated OMSCC All Stars in the final, thwarting the efforts of Essequibo who were seeking to retain the title for an unprecedented seventh consecutive year.

The league also introduced an Over-60 game, featuring past stalwarts with Naz Baksh doing the honours of sponsoring the feature.