ACCORDING to Georgetown Cricket Club’s (GCC) head coach, Peter Persaud, the club’s annual Summer Camp is scheduled to bowl off on July 29 and conclude on August 3 and will be held at the GCC ground, Bourda..
“We are hoping that the rain will hold up but we have plans in place if it does not. The camp will run from 09:00hrs to 13:00hrs each day and caters for boys and girls between the ages of seven and seventeen.
“We will create an environment in which the Kids will have fun learning the fundamentals of Cricket” said the left-handed Persaud, who played in the 1985 and 1986 Regional U-19 tournaments.
The registration fee is $5,000 and beverages and snacks will be provided for the participants.

Peter, the elder brother of West Indies U-19 and First-Class batter Paul Persaud, informed that the first such camp began in 1991 and was run by the late Harold ‘doc’ Dhanraj.
“Back then, it was an honour to walk on the ground at Bourda since it was the only ground in Guyana where Test cricket was played.
The kids today have everything they need, yet the standard of cricket now is not as high as back then.
We hope that camps like this can recapture the interest in cricket for those at a very young age, instilling the passion and joy and hopefully inspire them to want to stay with the game when they get older” continued Persaud.

Only white T-shirts and white long or short pants can be worn by the participants who will be limited to 60 students.
The package includes professional coaching from National Coach, Garvin Nedd, former Guyana Youth Coach, Orin Bailey and Persaud.
“It is not only cricket skills that will be taught. There will be lectures on discipline, game awareness, team building and the opportunity to interact with senior and junior national players.
At present GCC has Mavindra Dindyal, Thaddeus Lovell, Krsna Singh and Shahid Viera in St Vincent with the national U-19 team.

Last year GCC shared the record for the most players in a Guyana U-19 squad from one club with Malteenoes, which had seven in 1987.
GCC, established in 1884, is the oldest cricket club in the West Indies and hosted the West Indie for the first Test win when they beat England in 1930.
The club has produced 18 Test players and four of the seven Guyanese who captained West Indies in Test cricket.
Alvin Kallicharran, Carl Hooper, Shiv Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan were West Indies captains who played for GCC.
Two of the eight Guyanese to captain the West Indies U-19 team, Timur Mohamed (1976) and Leon Johnson (2006) were GCC players.