By Frederick Halley

TORONTO, Canada – Ambassadors Sports Club stole the spotlight when
the Scarborough Cricket Association (SCA) held its 40th annual presentation via Zoom recently.

Dubbed the “Virtual Recognition Night,” when teams and players were rewarded for their outstanding performances during a truncated 2020 season, Ambassadors A were crowned Group A Elite League champions while their B side captured Group B in the Third Division League, which saw them being crowned “double” winners.The sterling efforts earned Ambassadors the Trophy Stall of Toronto silverware for winning the Elite crown and the Roy Lalkissoon Trophy for Third Division title.

Not to be outdone, Ajax/Scarbo Kingz A proved unstoppable in Group B of the Elite League to walk away with the Shiv Persaud of Primerica Trophy, while Highland Creek B topped Group A of the Premiere League to claim the Trophy Stall of Toronto Trophy. Group B winners were Palace Panthers and their prize was the Shiv Persaud of Primerica Trophy.

Toronto Rhinos held off a late challenge from Durham to claim the First Division title, defeating the same opponents in the final game of the division while Maple/Skanda CC took top honours in Second Division.
Four winners were crowned in the T20 League: Star CC won Group A and received the Deo Samaroo sponsored trophy; Elevens Kerala claimed Group B, winning the Bisham Singh trophy; The Kayi Wolves took care of Group C and with it the Vish Jadunauth-sponsored trophy, while the Group D champions were Island Warriors, who took home the Mathew Francis-sponsored trophy.

Among the prominent individual awardees were seventeen-year-old Matthew Nandu, the son of former Guyana and West Indies Under-19 leg-spinner, Arjune Nandu, who finished the First Division season with the most runs; his 318 being 43 more than Toronto Rhino’s Aamir Khan, who totalled 275 from eight matches.

Significantly, Nandu, who represented Kaieteur International Sports Club ‘B’, only played four games. Nandu’s 146 in the first match of the season was also the highest in the division while he also struck two half-centuries for an average of 106 and a strike rate of 91.38. Left-arm spinner.

Raqib Shamsudeen, whose parents are Guyanese, captured the most wickets in the Elite Division; his 21 wickets coming at the miserly average of 11.43. Shamsudeen was also part of the Canadian Under-19 team at the last World Cup, held in South Africa earlier this year.

Ajax/Scarboro Kingz’s Sachin Kumar Asokan led the Elite batting with 360 runs while Isham Sharma of Janbaaz was second with 300. Amerish Deoraj, the successful Ambassadors A skipper, took 16 wickets to place second behind Shamsudeen in the bowling department.

Imtyiaz Hanslod (Scarborough X1) was superb in the batting and bowling in the Premiere League, topping the batting with 484 runs and also claimed 22 wickets, the same as Yateesh Ramdhani (Kaieteur International A) to take top honours in the bowling department. Imran Patel of Bawa took 19.

The top bowler in the First Division was Jake Nash with 18 wickets while his teammate, Fareed Mohamed, was second with 14. Maple/Skanda players dominated the First Division with Andrew Georgerugixshan tallying 371 runs to top the batting and his teammate, Rakhulan Ratnam, taking 17 wickets to lead the bowling.

The Third Division saw Josmy Manuel of Phoenix Kerala leading the way in the batting with 382 runs while Akash Ahir of Toronto Seawolves took top honours in the bowling with 19 wickets.The top performers in the T20 were Taushif Intwala and Fahad Motara, both of Youngstars B, the former scoring 297 runs and the latter bagging 16 wickets.