2nd Annual Nasir Memorial 5/5 Cricket Tournament on Sunday
Bakewell Berbice Supervisor Andre Sukwa hands over the sponsorship cheque to Chanderpaul Govindan of the RHTY&SC
The Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club, M.S will be hosting the 2nd annual Naeem Nasir Memorial 5/5 Cricket tournament on Sunday with support from long official sponsor, Bakewell. Nasir, the founder of Bakewell died a few years ago and is hailed as one of the main reasons why the RHTY&SC, M.S is widely considered as Guyana’s leading Youth and Sports organisation.
Secretary/CEO of the Club, Hilbert Foster hailed the late Bakewell CEO as a true friend and noted that his company since 2000 has invested millions of dollars into the club’s numerous programmes.
The 5/5 Cricket tournament he stated was part of the RHTY&SC, M.S efforts to keep Nasir’s memory alive and to pay tribute to an outstanding Guyanese icon and role model. The 5/5 tournament would bowl off at 9am at the Area ‘H’ Ground with twelve teams involved. Among the teams expected to take part in the tournaments are Rose Hall Town Bakewell, Rose Hall Estate, Fyrish, Toopoo Rising Star, Bush Lot United, Young and Restless, Good Bananen and Belvedere United. Teams would be allotted twenty minutes to bowl their five overs while only two fielders would be allowed out of the 30 yards circle for the first over. A maximum of five fielders would be allowed out of the circle for the last four overs.
All teams are expected to report to the Area ‘H’ Ground by 8:30h with two red cricket balls. Umpires for the tournament would be provided by the Berbice Cricket Umpires Association. A prize package of over $100,000.00 would be given to the top teams and Player of the Finals. The energetic Secretary/CEO stated that with the Berbice Cricket Board been injected in the High Court, Berbice Cricket is at the crossroad and unless something is done shortly, the situation would get worse.
The RHTY&SC, M.S he stated would be organising a series of tournaments at the Under 15, Under 17, Under 19, Female, Second and First Division levels in a major effort to make sure that cricket is kept alive in the ancient county.
The long serving cricket official stated that when the RHTY&SC was founded in 1990, they were over 130 cricket clubs in the ancient county but today there are less than quarter of that amount due to the sickening state of Berbice, Guyana and West Indies Cricket. He warned that unless the stakeholders of Guyana’s Cricket learn to work for the betterment of the game and the younger generation, the game would die a natural death.
Bakewell has been sponsoring the Under 17 and Second Division teams of the RHTY&SC since 2000 and is the co-sponsor of over 20 other activities including the Annual Award Ceremony, Annual Youth review Magazine, Christmas Village, Mother and Father of the Year Programme, Annual Cricket Award and Christmas Senior Citizens hampers among others.
Foster expressed gratitude to Bakewell CEO Rajindranauth Ganga and the widow of the late Naeem Nasir, Annetta Nasir for their continued confidence in the RHTY&SC. He pledged that the tournament would be properly executed.
