By Frederick Halley
FRESH off the completion of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) tournament, the eighth edition of the Prime Minister’s T20 Softball tournament, organised by the Georgetown Softball Cricket League (GSCL), in collaboration with the Office of the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Culture, Youth & Sport, bowls off on Friday with the men’s category at various venues around Georgetown.
Preliminary round matches in the women’s division will be played today while the finalists will be known following the completion of these games which will be played on a knockout basis.
According to the organisers, all systems are in place for the staging of the softball extravaganza which culminates at the Police Sports Club ground, Eve Leary on Sunday.
Some 36 teams, including 12 women teams, will be vying for supremacy with prize monies topping over three million dollars.
A fierce battle is expected to ensue in the Open All Stars category with the star-studded Knight Riders Ariel All Stars aiming to win their fourth consecutive title in as many years.
In what is considered by many as the “Group of Death,” the defending champions are drawn in Group A with two previous winners in Regal All Stars and Speedboat with only two of them having chances of advancing to Saturday’s semi-finals.
In Friday’s opening rounds, scheduled to get underway at 09:00 hrs, Regal All Stars oppose Hyde Park Sports Club and Speedboat take on Knight Riders Ariel All Stars in Group at the Queen’s College ground.
In Group B, CJIA Warriors battle Name Brand at YMCA and Premier Insurance Guyana battle Tourism Guyana at Queen’s College
The afternoon games, which are scheduled to get underway at 13.30 hours, will see Regal All Stars meeting Speedboat and Knight Riders Ariel All Stars and Hyde Park clashing in Group A, both matches set for Queen’s College.
In Group B, CJIA Warriors and Premier Insurance Guyana meet at YMCA and Tourism Guyana and Name Brand come to grips at Queen’s College.
In last year’s final, played under lights at the Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) ground, Queenstown, Knight Riders Ariel All Stars put on a clinical display to defeat Regal All Stars by five wickets.
Led by a matured knock of 77 not out from National One-day player, Quentin Sampson and some exceptional fielding, the defending champions only needed 14 overs to reach the required 174 for victory after limiting Regal All Stars to 173 for nine in their allotted 20 overs.
As in the past few years, the Over-50 Legends category which has been dominated by Regal Legends in and out of Guyana, has also attracted attention once more and will see 10 teams battling for the top prize.
Among the teams vying to topple the defending champions are last year’s runners-up, New York Softball Cricket League (NYSCL) and GTA Storm coming out of Canada. The latter created quite a stir recently by winning the Canada Cup and also the Ontario Masters Softball Cricket Clubs (OMSCC) title and are brimming with confidence.
Regal Legends will also be out to redeem themselves after their lacklustre performance in the NYSCL Independence Cup, which saw them being eliminated on the opening day of the tournament.
Regal Masters will also be aiming to defend the Over-40 title which will see six teams vying for superiority, including last year’s finalist, Ariel.
The winners in all three men’s category – Open All Stars, Masters Over-40 and Legends Over-50, will cart off a hefty first prize of $600,000 each while the runner-up will receive $100,000. The women’s category will see the winners taking home $200,000 and the runner-up $50,000. Players of the final in all four categories will be recipients of trophies while the player of the series in the Open and Masters categories will be recipient of electric scooters.
Apart from the Police Sports Club ground, where the finals will culminate during the day on Sunday, other venues slated to be used include Muslim Youth Organisation (MYO), Gandhi Youth Organisation (GYO), Queen’s College, Transport Sports Club and the Guyana Defence Force (GDF).
