A total of thirty youth cricketers drawn from seven clubs in the New Amsterdam area, on Thursday last, benefitted from a donation of cricket gears from the Berbice Cricket Board (BCB)-organised Ray Hazel Memorial Trust Fund.

The fund is one of several of its kind that were held over the last four years by the board with the main objective of providing youth players with the necessary cricket items to allow them to fulfil their dreams.

BCB president Hilbert Foster accompanied by Secretary Angela Haniff, Assistant Secretary Ameer Rahaman and executive Edgert Edwards, conducted the transparent distribution of the gear via a raffle system at the Area H Ground in front of the players, their parents, and executives of the different clubs.

Among the gear distributed were bats, batting pads, batting gloves, wicketkeeping gloves, wicketkeeping pads , footwear and helmets.

The clubs, whose members benefitted, were Guymine, Rose Hall Canje, Tucber Park,Kendall Union, Edinburgh, Mt Sinai and East Bank Berbice. Foster, in brief remarks during the ceremony, noted that he was contacted by the Hazel family to organise the fund in memory of the late Ray Hazel, a former junior Berbice player and table tennis champion.

Ray was the son of former president of the BCB, Ancel Hazel, who was also head of the Guyana Teachers Union . Ray Hazel died several years ago in the United States after a brief illness.

The gears were posted late last year but due to the ongoing global pandemic, shipping was delayed for several months. One box send to the BCB was destroyed in the fire at the Laparkan bond but two barrels were saved.

Foster urged the youths to not only take care of the items but to develop a culture of hard work, discipline and dedication while appreciating the investment that the Hazel family was making into their development.

He also pledged that the BCB would continue to invest into youth development at all levels with the hosting of cricket tournaments, hosting of numerous developmental programmes and assisting clubs and players as much as possible.

Foster, who is a cricket director at the CWI, also announced that dozens of players, schools and cricket clubs across Berbice would soon benefit from millions of dollars worth of gears under a joint effort with the Cricket Kindness Group of England.

Arlington Hazel, Ray’s brother, expressed thanks to the BCB for joining hands with his family in honoring him. He disclosed that the trust fund would be a regular event and he was confident that the county cricketing system would benefit from the investment. He also stated that he was very impressed with the development taking place in the county and pledged his future support.

Clubs also received a set of cricket gears, uniforms and a scorebook.