Winston Semple was re-elected president of the Malteenoes Sports Club (MSC) following elections held at the club’s pavilion last week.
The ex-First Division batsman, along with Deborah McNicol as first vice-president; former national youth batsman Shawn Holder as second vice-president; Adrian Smith as secretary; Troy Lewis as treasurer; Marcus Watkins as assistant secretary/treasurer; Steven Jacobs as club captain, and Sean Devers as PRO, was appointed to lead the club for the remainder of 2018 going forward.
Oswald Pearce and Owen John were further elected as committee members of the club, which was founded in 1902 by Ferdinand Archer. Seven of the eight executives have played Division One cricket for MSC, with Jacobs being a present national player.
The new executive body of the Malteenoes Sports Club
Semple, elder brother of West Indies ODI batsman Keith Semple, spoke about some of the plans the new executive hopes to accomplish by the end of the year. “We hope to increase our general membership and our pool of youth cricketers, especially the U-13s and U-17s. We also hope to complete our practice facility, which will include concrete and turf pitches,” the 49-year-old said.
The president disclosed that some sponsorship for the practice facility has already been acquired. In the late 1980s, Malteenoes had launched the first ever Cricket Academy in the Caribbean during the August school vacation, and plans are in place to revive that academy, which has produced several players from as far as Berbice, who went on to represent Guyana at various levels.
Semple lamented that the main problem was getting coaches for the academy, since CPL is played during that period and most of the top coaches would be involved in that tournament.
Members were encouraged to attend the monthly ‘Club Night’ held on the last Friday of each month. John Trim, Clayton Lambert, Rex Collymore, Barrington Browne, Colin Stuart and Indomattie Goordial are MSC players who have played for West Indies.
Former West Indies pacer Ian Bishop represented MSC in the 1980s, while in 1987, seven players in the National U-19 also came from that club.
