At the Learning Resources Centre of Imam Bacchus at Affiance, Essequibo Coast on Thursday, the annual Simons’ memorial tournament was launched.
The tournament was inaugurated in 2017, but halted for two consecutive years, 2020 and 2021, understandably so owing to the pandemic.
For this year’s edition, there will be four categories – the Under-15s and Under-19s playing 40 overs while the open and over-40 categories will play 20-20 contests.
Several CECC executives and players strike a pose
The competitions, which will be played on a round-robin basis, will get cracking on February 19 at various venues across the Essequibo Coast and once again, they are being run under the auspices of the Central Essequibo Cricket Committee (CECC).
At the launch, CECC President Trevis Simon outlined the structure of the tournament and informed that his family was indeed delighted to have another competition going. He related that several of his family members passed away, including his father Leyland.
“We started to remember our loved ones with a village match in 2017, but now we decided to expand the competition, and … invited teams from across the region to participate,” Simon stated.
He expressed his gratitude to the other branches of the Simon family for their support and with a large number of trophies up for grab, he stated that this was another demonstration of their generosity to the game.
He further thanked Deleep Singh, the President of Essequibo Cricket Board (ECB), for attending the launching and his remarks.
In his address, Singh, who is in his first stint as the leader of the ECB, said he was also ecstatic to see such an initiative by the CECC – having a memorial tournament with four competitions being played simultaneously.
“This is commendable by the Simon’s family for this gesture; this will certainly help with the continued development of Essequibo cricket and I must congratulate Trevis and his family for making this a reality,” Singh declared.
Singh also told the gathering that included several former national youth players and ex-Essequibo skipper Dinesh Joseph that he wanted to see other committees emulate the CECC by coming out and running tournaments of such great magnitude where the players could benefit.
CECC Vice President Brian Christiani chaired the proceedings and echoed similar sentiments. He remarked that the tournament was definitely a solid foundation for more exciting cricket competitions to come in the near future. He praised the Simons and thanked the sponsors for their commitment and dedication towards the development of cricket on the Essequibo Coast.
David Simon, in an invited comment, stated that the family was still saddened by the deaths of their loved ones, but expressed elation and excitement to make a contribution.
