Battle lines drawn as Brain Street U-15 cricket starts on April 2

Mar 24, 2012 Sports

The battle lines have been drawn in the second annual 11-team Georgetown Cricket Association (GCA) Brain Street 100 overs Under-15 League which commences on April 2.
The one-day competition which will see 100 overs bowled in a day’s play, was officially launched yesterday at the Malteenoes Sports Club when it was announced that the Bel Air Texaco team, coached by Ashmin Ali will be the newest team in the tournament which will be played on a round-robin basis before the top four teams clash in the Semis and Final.
The sponsor of the Bel Air side said although its team was the ‘new kid on the block’ it was determined to be the most disciplined in the tournament adding that winning both the League and Cup titles was its goal.

Brain Street CEO Lance Hinds hands over the sponsorship cheque to GCA’s Dennis Wilson at the launching of the 2nd Annual GCA Brain Street 100 overs U15 cricket competition at Malteenoes yesterday.

Johnny ‘Overseas’ Barnwell, the coach of Queens College said his team was ‘already on the block’ and also out to win and extended a challenge to the other teams involved, including defending champions DCC ‘A’.
Brain Street’s CEO Lance Hinds disclosed that his Company was happy to be associated with the GCA and said its primary drive is to help increase and improve the standard of GCA’s cricket.
Hinds said that as the President of Malteenoes he was aware of what was needed and the challenges which faced cricket in the city and urged other businesses to get involved in supporting the GCA’s Programmes.
GCA Vice-President Neil Barry gave a brief review of the inaugural tournament last year and pointed out that in addition to the GCA ladies team who are not playing to win the competition but for match practice, this year’s tournament has one more team in the Bel Air Texaco unit.
Barry said the same rules as last year will apply this year, explaining that the team which bats first will have a maximum of 55 overs to bat while the team batting second will have 45 overs to bat.
He said if however, the first team is dismissed before the completion of 55 overs, the other team will have their 45 overs plus whatever the team batting first could not bat out from their allotted 55.
In an effort to try and produce fast bowlers at a time when the slow pitches and the quality of batsmanship against spin many times reduces pacers to mere spectators in matches locally, the GCA continues with their policy to mandate that 25 of the total number of overs bowled in an innings be bowled by fast bowlers.
Chairman of the GCA competitions committee Shawn Massiah said last year there were lots of centuries scored and five-wicket hauls registered which mirrowed the standard of the competition.
He added that a team will get 10 points for a win, five for a tie, two for a draw, one for an abandoned game and none for a loss. Massiah said that bonus points will also be awarded for outstanding performances during matches.
GCA President Roger Harper thanked Brain Street for their continued support and investment in young people. The former West Indies all-rounder reminded that Brain Street is about developing minds.
“We had a very successful competition last year and we must give thanks to the Almighty for the good weather and hope for the same this year. We are hoping for the support for the City clubs to make their grounds available and try to produce good pitches for the youngsters to play on,” Harper said.
Harper said he looked forward to seeing the players exceed the standard of last year’s tournament when five players from the competition went on to represent Guyana at the regional Under-15 level.
The GCA President said he wants the players to understand the mental aspects of their cricket so that they can learn from young to be better equipped for the higher level. Harper informed that information about the competition can be had from the GCA’s website at www.gcacricket.org.
In the opening round DCC ‘A’ play GCA ladies at DCC, Saints takes on QC at GNIC, DCC ‘B’ oppose Transport Sports Club at GYO, MSC battles GYO at MSC and GCC face-off with Everest at GCC. Bel Air Texaco draws the first round bye.