THE New Building Society Limited (NBS) and the Berbice Cricket Board (BCB) recently launched this year’s second division 40 overs-a-side cricket competition which will have over 100 teams participating, making it the largest competition by far in Guyana.

At a simple ceremony held at the NBS New Amsterdam Branch, NBS presented a cheque for $683 400 to the BCB for the running-off of the competition, representing an increase in nearly $200 000 which will go mainly towards offsetting the high cost of umpire fees for a competition that usually consists of over 250 matches.
At the presentation ceremony, Anil Beharry, the NBS Senior Manager of the Berbice Branches, said that his organisation was pleased to be involved once again in this particular competition which touched so many communities across the Ancient County, giving the Society the splendid opportunity to give something back to so many different areas and to keep young people gainfully occupied.
He went on to say that he, who is also treasurer of the BCB, knew first hand that it usually takes great effort from the Board to ensure the success of the competition and expressed his happiness in the way it was usually run and was particularly pleased with the support given by the media to have all the results published.
Also speaking on behalf of the Society was its Rose Hall Branch Manager, Rana Persaud, who reiterated his organisation’s pleasure with the running-off of the competition over the years as well as with the number of matches played, thus its ready agreement to increase the sponsorship this year.
He said he was very pleased with the commitment, sportsmanship and discipline generally shown by the participating teams in the past and was looking forward for much of the same in this year’s competition which he hopes would be successful once again.
Also present at the launching was the BCB president Keith Foster, who took the opportunity to thank the sponsor for keeping faith in his Board through its continued support of this competition.
He said that it was this competition that was responsible for keeping Berbice cricket alive especially since the young cricketers used it to hone their talent and go on to higher levels as Devendra Bishoo, Assad Fudadin and Veerasammy Permaul, who all grew up playing NBS cricket, had done and many players graduated to the first division level.
He also pointed out that with the older cricketers involved, the younger players benefited from their experiences and that youth cricket in the villages flourished with so many grounds put in shape for this competition.
The BCB Competition Committee Chairman, Carl Moore, disclosed that all of the cricket clubs in Berbice have received their invitation letters and application forms and he urged those who had not yet registered, to do so immediately so that the competition can get started on Sunday, December 2.