Mentore challenges GT clubs to focus on youths

Sep 25, 2011 Sports

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Harper says cricket grounds should be used for cricket

The Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) celebrates its centenary year next year and the Queens town club, home of several West Indian legends including Clive Lloyd, Lance Gibbs and Roy Fredericks, is focusing on youth development to continue the club rich tradition of producing quality cricketers.
On Friday night at the club’s pavilion, DCC honoured its youth players and participants from the Gavin Nedd Summer Clinic held over the August holidays.
The gathering included the youths and their parents along with several other prominent cricketing personalities including Georgetown Cricket Association (GCA) President and former DCC President, Roger Harper, the former Test off-spinner.
DCC President Alfred Mentore, himself a former Guyana under-19 player, and now the Guyana Cricket Board Vice-President, told those present that focus is on youth development since there lies the hopes of a revival of Guyana’s and West Indies’ cricket in the next decade.
Mentore was also high in praise of the tireless work of Coach Nedd, a former National off-spinner who has galvanized the youths of DCC into the best under-13 team in the country.
Mentore said that while his club continues to churn out talented pre-teen cricketers and work on taking them to the next level, he would like to see other club pay more interest in youth cricket since this is where the future lies.
The DCC top man also commended the GCA for organizing competitions to showcase the ability of the youngsters and said that he was willing to offer sponsorship support for GCA youth cricket through his business entity.
The 39-year-old Nedd, speaking without a script in a heartfelt and impressive speech, said that he loves coaching youths and have already indentified a few youngsters who if they remain focused and are handled correctly can go on to represent Guyana and the West Indies.
Nedd, who took 29 wickets from 14 First-Class matches between 1994 and 2000, said the Summer Clinic was open to not only children from DCC but from anywhere and thanked those parents who were of tremendous assistance, adding that the emphasis was on teaching the basis and stressing the importance of discipline, hard work and an education to success.
Harper, a special invitee, congratulated the club for doing a fine job with the youths and said that while Mentore was correct to challenge the other clubs focus on their very young cricketers he reminded that the only way cricketers can improve is by playing often and working on their flaws.
“We must remember that despite how many programs you have, playing cricket on a regular basis develops skill and provides experience and this is not happening in the city because of the unavailability of cricket grounds for cricket matches. Too many non-cricket activities result in cricket grounds in Georgetown being unavailable for cricket and that is a great shame,” Harper, a former West Indies Head Coach lamented.
Harper pointed out that if schools were being used for other activities and affected the education of the pupils, people would have spoken out and the same is needed at the cricket level since without grounds, cricketers cannot develop at the required rate desired.
Harper was also high in praise of Nedd whom he described as ‘someone who is very passionate and committed about what he does for the youngsters.
Xaviee Smith copped the MVP award in the Banks Pee-Wee Under-13 competition while Ronaldo Renee (Best fielder), Achmead Nedd (Special award), Shanor De Sousa (best all-rounder) and Romain Muniram (most disciplined player) also collected awards for that competition.
Michale Shalim, who scored three centuries, was the MVP and best batsman in the Brain Street under-15 tournament, while Kevin Imlach (best fielder) and Chandra Persaud (most disciplined player) also received awards for that tournament.
Travis Persaud was the MVP of the Brain Street competition, while Smith (most wickets), Renee (most runs and Best fielder) also took home awards.
Kemal Savory received a special award for making the Essequibo under-15 team and being named a stand-by on this year’s National under-15 side.
Timothy McCalmont and Clevon McEwan received awards for their performances in the DeSinco under-13 tournament, while under-19 batsman Jahron Byron received a prize for making a century for Georgetown against East Bank in the inter association under-19 competition.
Shameer Griffith was the best graduating student from the Summer Camp, while Akeem Green (best academic student), Renee (most disciplined) and Savory (best junior wicketkeeper) were also among the awardees.
Premindra Jaigobin received an award for the best youth bowler in the second division competition, while Andrew Gibson collected a similar award for the best youth batsman at second division level.
(Sean Devers)

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