WITH the presence of last year’s tournament’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) Wasim Haslim back in the male lineup, along with inspirational female skipper June Ogle-Thomas and her West Indies teammate Tremayne Smartt available, Managing Director of Trophy Stall,Ramesh Sunich, is confident his teams will go one step further this year around, when they do battle in the third annual Guyana Softball Cup.Speaking with Chronicle Sport yesterday morning, Sunich said his male side which also includes the Deosarran brothers in Surujpaul and Krishna, with the latter recently returning from Canada where he had a productive season, along with Randy Ketwaroo, is ready and raring to go.
The Guyana Softball Cup 111 bowls off on Friday with several first round matches in both the Male Open and Masters Category respectively and despite the heavy presence of several overseas teams and even local ones who at times can be a thorn in the Trophy Stall lineup, Sunich is not flustered.
“I know a lot of teams will be looking to take away the first place prize of $800,000, but so too do Trophy Stall; and the way the guys have been playing of late, I am pretty confident that at the end of this year’s Guyana Softball Cup 11, we will be hoisting the Male Open trophy in the air,” said Sunich.
Quizzed on why he is so confident, Sunich said, “We have been training assiduously hard for this tournament, entering competitions and gearing our minds towards playing with the big ball and having reached the finals last year when we lost, all the players are eager to go one step further.
When we won the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company nationwide 10/10 tournament in 2010, all the players were in the same frame of mind as they are now and that gives me the confidence to say we will be carting off the top prize in this tournament.”
He added, “Added to that, the Haslim’s MVP award last year will serve as a boost for us, while Krishna Deosarran is joining the team following a productive season in Canada and coming off the back of a century in the Trophy Stall sponsored tournament that is being used as a warm up for the Guyana Softball Cup 111.”
Looking at the team from the distaff side, who won the exhibition encounter last year, Sunich said the likes of Ogle-Thomas, who has led the team to the GT&T 10/10 championships last year, along with Smartt, Kavita Yadram and Alicia Alleyne amongst others are all go getters.
“The work that Coach Lyndon Wilson has been putting in with these girls is tremendous ever since he took over the role last year during the GT&T tournament and one thing they do say during their team meetings is, ‘Lets do this for Coachman.
It is their aim to make him proud, as they have already made me proud based on their performances on the field and when they take the field to compete in the exhibition encounters on Sunday, prior to the playing of the finals, they will be doing so as defending champions whose aim it is to retain that title.”
The ladies, who are known as Trophy Stall Angels, will be competing against 4R Lioness, Karibee Rice Girls and Wellwoman in the exhibition encounter, which will be a three-match affair, comprising two semi-finals and final, with trophy and cash prize up for grabs.

(By Calvin Roberts)