… Region Five to benefit shortly

REPRESENTATIVES of 14 secondary schools turned up at the St Francis Community Centre Training Hall last week to receive close to $2M worth of uniforms and cricket gear as part of the Berbice Cricket Board (BCB)/Lochan Samkarran School cricket programme.

The schools who are based in Region Six were mainly represented by their head teachers. Three schools were absent at the simple presentation ceremony and would receive their supply of items later this week when executives of the BCB visit them.

Each school received a package that consisted of 15 pairs of branded white cricket uniforms, two boxes of red balls and some cricket gear. Among the gear were bats, batting gloves, seed guards and wicket-keeping gloves.

The schools who benefitted were Line Path, Skeldon High, Black Bush Polder, Manchester, Winifred Gaskin, Corentyne Comprehensive, JC Chandisingh, Lower Corentyne, Port Mourant, Canje Secondary, Berbice High, Vryman’s Erven, BEI and Tutorial Academy. Absent were Tagore Memorial, Central Corentyne and New Amsterdam.

BCB president Hilbert Foster urged the teachers to take care of the items as they were obtained at great cost to Mr Samkarran, an overseas-based businessman. Foster disclosed that with the donation of the items, the second phase of the BCB historic programme would start shortly, with coaches going into schools under the NAMILCO Thunderbolt Coaching project.

The BCB executives included Foster, Secretary Angela Haniff, Competitions Chairman Leslie Solomon and Asst Secretary Ameer Rahaman, who discussed the schedule for the coaching programme which would involve 15 coaches in Region Six. Foster also stated that at the end of the coaching, a squad of 60 players would be named by the coaches for a special two-week coaching camp.

This would be followed by four different tournaments at the inter-zone level. The zones – West Berbice, New Amsterdam/Canje, Lower Corentyne and Upper Corentyne – would each provide a champion. The four champions would then play in a special tournament to decide on the overall Berbice Secondary School Champions.

Six schools in Region Five would shortly collect their uniforms and gear and would also be involved in the coaching programme. Foster expressed thanks to Mr Samkarran for his assistance and stated that his contribution was most welcome. He assured the sponsor that the donated items would be used for the intended purpose and disclosed that BCB was confident that a batch of over 20 national players would emerge from the programme over the next few months.

Representatives of the schools expressed thanks to BCB and Mr Samkarran for their assistance and pledged to take care of the items.