GCB senior 4-day cricket to start on September 22

Sep 10, 2009 Sports

Rest team to compete against Dem, E’bo and B’ce

The Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) yesterday announced that a Rest team will compete against county teams Demerara, Berbice and Essequibo in an ‘experimental’ senior 4-day cricket competition from September 22.
GCB head Chetram Singh said that last year a 42-man squad was divided into 3 teams to replace the annual 4-day senior Inter-County competition because of the consistence poor showing of Essequibo in the competition.
Singh said while he was all for the idea, the competition proved to be a farce although the GCB allocated prize money into the competition.
“The selectors, who maybe did not understand that the matches were not trials but a competition, got involved and called in players when they did well and changed bowlers and so on and that experiment did not work,” Singh said
He added that playing for your county might spark more commitment from the players and Essequibo has returned to this year’s competition.
According to Singh, the Rest team will come from the best fringe players who could not make their county teams and will be selected by the chairman of the National selection panel and the Chairman of each county panel.
“This is another experiment as we look to get the best possible competition and I hope we will see competitive cricket. All of Essequibo’s games are in Essequibo because since we don’t have a sponsor, we want to utilize the hostel there,” Singh explained.
He added that no match has been fixed for Berbice due to economic reasons since the players will be accommodated at the GCB Hostel in Georgetown for the games in Demerara.
Two games will be played simultaneously with Essequibo playing Demerara at Anna Regina and Berbice facing the Rest team at DCC from September 22-25 in the first round.
The competition will then be put on hold for the staging of the Guyana Cricket Festival and Super Concert on October 23 & 24 and the Regional One-Day series in Guyana from October 28.
The 4-day competition resumes from November 10-13 with Demerara facing the Rest Team at Police and Berbice facing Essequibo at Anna Regina in the 2nd round. The final round has been set for November 17-20 at Anna Regina and Everest.
Singh said that the Nation-wide semi-finals of the Neal & Massy National 40-overs first division competition is scheduled for Saturday September 26 while the Final will be played at the National Stadium on October 17. The Winner of the Essequibo zone face the winner of the Berbice zone in Essequibo while the winner of the Demerara zone battle the runner-up of the Berbice zone in Berbice in the semi-finals. The El’Dorado 50-over Inter County competition, which will be used to select the national team for the Guyana Cricket Festival and the Regional one-day competition, begins on September 30 when Essequibo play Demerara at Anna Regina.
Berbice take on Essequibo at Blairmont on October 3 and Demerara face-off with Berbice at Wales on October 4.
The final will be played under lights at the Stadium on Saturday October 10.
(Sean Devers)

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