Gafson’s $3 Million National 20/20 competition launched

Oct 07, 2008 Sports

Malteenoes begin title defence against Nandy Park

as Demerara zone starts Friday

Gafoor’s CEO, Mohamad Ali (right) hands over the Gafson’s 20/20 trophy to GCB President Chetram Singh at yesterday’s launching of the national 20/20 competition at GCC, while other officials present, look on.

By Sean Devers
The Gafson’s National first division 20/20 cricket competition was launched yesterday at the GCC pavilion and CEO of Gafoor’s Industries Limited Mohammad Ali has already committed his Company’s support for next year’s tournament.

The round-robin competition will be played among the first division teams in each of the three counties before the National ‘final four’ stage is held at the region’s third second oldest Test venue Bourda.

The competition begins this Friday from 14:30hrs with the commencement of the 12-team Demerara zone, while the eight-team Essequibo zone and the 12-team Berbice zone should start next week Friday.

Because City side Malteenoes won the national 20/20 by beating Albion in the last national final, Demerara will have their top two teams in the semi-finals along with the Berbice and Essequibo champion team and the winning team will take home the Gafson’s trophy and half of a million dollars with $100,000 of that prize money going to the club and the rest to the players.

The Runner- up will receive $250,000 with $50,000 of that sum going to the club while the losing semi-finalist will also collect cash incentives.

President of the Guyana Cricket Board Chetram Singh explained that it was good to see the sponsors have mandated that the clubs also receive part of the winning prize, since while it is the players who go out and win; it is the clubs that have to spend money and time on giving the players the opportunity to become stars.

“Gafoor’s approached us to once again get involved with cricket and our three-million dollar budget was very quickly agreed upon by their Board of Directors.

We have also set the matches to be played on Friday afternoons in order to give the clubs the opportunity to make some money from their Bars while the GCB will pay for balls and Umpires fees for all of the matches in addition to lunches for the semi-finals and final,” Singh informed.

Singh opined that 20/20 cricket is here to stay and is the most popular version of the game presently. The GCB top man for the last 16 years added that 20/20 cricket is helping to spread cricket to non-traditional areas and said that this national 20/20 tournament is very important since it is preparation for Guyana’s participation in next year’s Stanford regional 20/20 competition.

GCB Vice President Alvin Johnson, who chaired yesterday’s press conference, disclosed that the GCB was doing very well in attracting sponsors for local competitions and added that since the weather has been good all of the GCB’s tournaments should be completed this year.

Both Johnson, the President of the Essequibo Cricket Board, and Singh thanked Gafoor’s for their sponsorship and promised and exciting and well organised competition.

Ali said the GCB request was an easy one since Gafoor had in the past sponsored many sporting events but had cut back on their sponsorship of sports over the last two years for various reasons.

“We are glad to be once again associated with cricket in Guyana and more importantly being able to help in the development of our youths. It is important that companies pay attention to their social obligations and we will sponsor this competition again next year,” Ali said.

Representatives of the sponsors and leading local cricket officials were present yesterday and President of the Demerara Cricket Board (DCB) Bissoon Singh, the former GCC leg-spinner, presented his board’s fixtures for the competition.

“We have set some tentative venues since we want to be professional and go around to check the grounds we have selected to ensure that they can all be ready for Friday’s opening round.

We have also set some matches for the Saturdays and Sundays when we do not have Demerara Board matches but once the GCB wants matches to be played only on Fridays will adjust our fixtures to comply with that,” Singh added.

Johnson said the eight cricket area associations in Essequibo will each play as a team and the fixtures for the Essequibo zone is being finalised.

And Chairman of the GCB competitions committee Carl Moore, who is also a member of the Berbice Cricket Board, says the Berbice zone will start on October 17.

“We want the competition to be played with all of the International 20/20 regulations and our regulations will be finalised this week since we have to confirm if the Stanford 20/20 tournament will be played with the new regulations which came into effect on the first of this month,” Moore explained.

He added that the GCB has not yet officially seen the new rules, including the one which says the batsmen can decide when to take one power-play, and as such the entire regulations for the Gafson’s 20/20 has not yet been completed.

Demerara zone 1st round Fixtures: Zone A:- Maverick vs East Coast, Police vs GNIC & Nanday Park vs MSC
Zone B:- New Line Aqua Fresh vs, Lusignan, GCC vs University of Guyana & TSC vs Everest.