Hand-in-Hand U-19 Inter-County Cricket…Tournament starts on May 29

May 18, 2017 Sports

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By Sean Devers
Howard Cox, Director and Fire Manager of Hand-in-Hand Fire & Life Insurance Company said yesterday at the Launching of the second annual Hand-in-Hand U-19 Inter-County cricket tournament, that the Insurance Company’s support for cricket goes back to the 1960s and for a long period has been a sponsor of the Hand-in-Hand second division Cricket competition in Demerara.
“I am very pleased with how last year’s tournament was run by the Guyana Cricket Board and proud to see Shemron Hetymer, who played for Berbice in last year’s Hand-in-Hand tournament, selected to play Test cricket for the West Indies,” said Howard.
“The GCB has many detractors but Guyana has won (almost) everything which shows that the cricket board is doing something right. I hope we can pass that on to the West Indies team,” added Howard who said Hand-in-Hand was pleased to be associated with this competition once again.
Secretary of the GCB, Anand Sanasie thanked Hand-in-Hand for their commitment for the past two years and said that that he hopes they become a long term sponsor. GTM sponsored U-19 inter-county for the longest period with their Inter-County tournament being played from the early 1980’s to the 1990s and Sanasie said at a time when sponsors for cricket is hard to find and encouraged the media give Hand-in-Hand coverage for their investment which help develop youth cricket locally.
“Hand-in-Hand is standing the cost of almost everything but despite the extra cost we have set matches for the Stadium. We hope the adverse weather improves since we want to have as much cricket being played as possible,” Sanasie informed.
Sanasie told the Media and Hand-in-Hand representatives Savita Singh (Business Development Officer), Zaida Joaquin (Human Resources Manager) and Shafeena Juman (Business Development Supervisor) that Baskar Yadram and Joshua Persaud have been selected for the West Indies U-19 tour to South Africa and Zimbabwe and reminded that the pair was both products of the Hand-in-Hand tournament.
Yadram and Persaud have been named Captain and Vice-Captain respectively of the Demerara team and will leave for Africa on June 25 after participating in the Inter-County tournament.
“The Academy players are all paid monthly salaries and provides players for the First-Class team. Bhaskar is the latest player from the U-19 ranks to play First-Class cricket this year and the results of that team’s success says a lot for the GCB,” said Sanasie.
While Sanasie admitted that the GCB needs to do better with Women’s cricket and is hoping to start a female League, the WICB Director lamented that this and many other plans can’t be put into action due to a lack of funds and commended Hand-in-Hand for putting valuable money into local cricket.
Sanasie, who leaves for a West Indies Board meeting today, disclosed that he was asked to prepare a ‘blue print’ on Guyana’s consistent success at all levels of Regional Cricket and despite that lack of Women’s club cricket in Guyana, feels that at least two Guyanese females should have gained selection on the West Indies Woman’s team.
Also present at yesterday’s launching was Territorial Development Officer of the GCB former West Indies pacer Colin Stuart who informed that the tournament is divided into a Three-Day and 50-over formats.
The opening 50-over games are scheduled to commence on Monday, May 29 with defending Champions Demerara facing off with the Select U-17s at Lusignan and Berbice playing Essequibo at Everest.
The second round will be played on May 31, while the final preliminary round is set for June 1 with the two top teams advancing to the Final at Providence on June 2. The one-day format will be played with Red balls and white clothes.
The three-day tournament is scheduled to be played with three rounds from June 6-16. Matches will be played at Providence, Lusignan, Eve Leary and Everest, but it was disclosed that due to unstable weather pattern venues can be changed.
Sanasie said that this tournament plays an important role in preparing the players for a successful defence of their 50-over title which they have won for the past three years and to regain their three-day title. Guyana won an unprecedented six titles from 1992-1997.
The Hand-in-Hand competition will be used to select the Guyana U-19 team for the 2017 Regional U-19 50-over and three-day tournament in July and August as Guyana return to St. Kitts where they won the last of their 11 three-day titles in 2007, when Steven Jacobs led them to glory and where Guyana lost the 2007 one-day final to Jamaica at Warner Park. Guyana have three 50-over titles.

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