– ten students benefit from Patron Educational Programme.

THE Berbice Cricket Board, on Saturday last, hosted the second of four social skills seminars for youths in the county. The seminar was held at the Fort Wellington Secondary School and attended by thirty-five youths drawn from clubs in the West Berbice area. The event was organised under the board’s Patron Trust Fund, and over the next two weeks would be held for a combined eighty youths in Upper and Lower Corentyne after the first one was held in New Amsterdam last weekend.

BCB president, Hilbert Foster, who was present for the entire six hours of the seminar, urged the attentive youths to take full advantage of the opportunities being presented to them by his board as it was an investment into their future. Youths in West Berbice, he noted, are given the same opportunities as their counterparts in the other sub associations and they must work hard to improve themselves. One of the basic problems in the county, Foster stated, was that the board had observed what it deemed as the lack of basic social skills among players who go on to play for the county or Guyana . These include basic manners, table etiquette, public speaking and how to behave at a public ceremony. The idea for the seminars was the initiative of Foster and club patron, Vickram Bharrat — Minister of Natural Resources– during one of their regular meetings on the development of Berbice Cricket. The seminar was conducted by four graduates of the Tain Campus of the University of Guyana — Seeta Dallo, Marissa Foster , Denica Henry and Junior Blair — along with veteran sports administrator, Levi Nedd. Among the topics covered last Saturday were life skills, leadership, basic mannerism, conflict resolution, table etiquette, balancing of sports and education, along with public speaking, among other things. Foster also spoke of the benefits of being a professional cricketer and the expectations of the BCB for the next set of county cricketers. He cautioned them to not only focus on their cricket but also on their education, as only a few of them would go on to play professionally and, as such, having an educational background is very important. He committed the BCB to always be a friend of youths and will continue to invest in their future.

West Berbice Cricket Board president, David Black, expressed thanks to Foster for his commitment to the overall development of cricket in West Berbice and urged the youths to go back to their clubs to share the new knowledge with their peers. Each of the participants of the seminar was presented with a Certificate of Participation from the BCB. Ten of the youths also benefitted from an educational grant of ten thousand dollars each from the BCB under its Patron Educational Trust Fund. The funds would be used to purchase much-needed educational materials from Metro Office Supplies. Under the programme, a total of forty youths would benefit from grants during the month of November. The youths were also involved in a one-day cricket academy on Sunday at the Cotton Tree ground under the watchful eyes of a battery of coaches, including Leslie Soloman and Travis Hardcourt.