Big Man Cricket tourney rescheduled to January/February 2021

After a painful period of deliberation, BIG MAN CRICKET-GUYANA (BMC-G) has made a full assessment of the current situation and has decided to postpone its highly popular and exciting BMC T25 tournament, which was scheduled to start on Sunday, November 22nd, 2020.The BMC-G deeply regrets having to make such an unpopular decision, “but rather than have a disjointed tournament, we made the bold decision to host the tournament when the weather is expected to be better and the environment healthier”.

BMC-G had already obtained approval for this tournament from the Ministry of Health, the COVID-19 Task Force, and the Minister responsible for Sport. The Guyana Cricket Board had declined approval for this tournament, since it clashed with the GCB’s Over-40 tournament.

COVID protocols for these matches had already been put in place. Most of the plans for this tournament had already been completed, but will now be shelved until the New Year.

Twelve teams had indicated their interest in participating in this tournament, namely: Upper Corentyne, Jai Hind, The Godfathers, East Coast Strikers, Georgetown Royal Rangers, Sarjoo Tigers, Regal Masters, Everest Masters, West Bank Warriors, West Demerara Vipers, Essequibo Eagles and Ras Tafar Eye Patriarchs.

BMC-G will have to decide on whether to stick with the participation of the original 10 teams planned, or to allow participation of the 12 teams named above. Sponsors have also started to come on board, and more will be publicised close to the launch of the tournament in January/February 2021.

This signature competition, a 25-over affair, is for players who are over 45 years old as at January 2021. It will be conducted on a round- robin basis, with 2 semifinals and a final, and will feature matches being held at grounds in all the counties – Essequibo, Demerara & Berbice. The final and the semifinals will be live streamed and will have live commentary.

During the preliminary matches, the Committee will commit to doing live streaming and commentary at other venues that have adequate internet services. All matches will be played with pink balls. Several attractive prizes will be up for grabs in accordance with the incentive programme outlined hereunder:
WINNER—————————————————— Winner’s Trophy and a cash prize
RUNNER-UP————————————————- Runner-up Trophy and a cash prize
MAN-OF-THE-SERIES————————————– One Motorcycle
MAN-OF-THE-MATCH FINALS————————– Trophy and a cash prize
MAN-OF-THE-MATCH SEMIFINALS——————– Trophy and a cash prize
MAN-OF-THE-MATCH Preliminary Rounds———- Trophy
MOST 6s in Tournament———————————- Trophy and a cash prize
MOST 4s in the Tournament—————————– Trophy and a cash prize
MOST CATCHES by a fielder—————————— Trophy and a cash prize
MOST STUMPINGS/CATCHES by wicketkeeper—— Trophy and a cash prize
BEST UMPIRE (Voted by all the captains) ————–Trophy and a cash prize.

Since this local tournament will now be pushed back to January/February 2021, the Regional T25 BMC Over-50 Tournament will now be held in April/May of 2021. The venue for this regional tournament is presently being decided by the Cricket West Indies Masters Association Steering Committee. Several teams from the Caribbean and North America have already indicated their interest in this tournament – Guyana, Trinidad, Barbados, Jamaica, Windwards, Leewards, USA & Canada.
The Domestic BMC T25 will be used as a yardstick to select the Guyana team. For the Regional T25 BMC Tournament, players will be eligible for participation based on their being 50 years and over as at March 8th, 2022.

At a later date in 2021, the BMC-G will be holding trials or a tournament for the F45 overs format of the Regional Over-50 tournament to select the Guyana team. The same teams above will participate in that tournament, which will be used to select the West Indies Over-50 World Cup team to represent us at the Over 50 World Cup in South Africa in March 2022.

Further practice matches will follow in TT or Barbados in the leadup to South Africa.
Exciting and purposeful times lie ahead for the development of our Masters’ cricket throughout the region. In this regard, a representative of the West Indies Masters team will be selected to tour Canada in August 2021 for a 3-match bilateral series against the Canadian World Cup team. This series will have 2 other F45 overs warm up matches against other local Canadian teams as warm up for the bilateral series.