At a gala dinner ceremony Tuesday evening the Guyana women’s cricket team got their send off from the czars of cricket in Guyana, including President of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) Chetram Singh, Director of Sport Neil Kumar and others.
Public Relations Officer of the GCB and Master of Ceremonies Terry Holder urged the team to return home with the regional trophy, something that has not been accomplished as yet. And in the same vein he chided Under-19 manager Alvin Johnson who had promised to bring home the U-19 trophy.
Meanwhile the President of the GCB praised the sponsors of the Guyana team, Geddes Grant, through their Jergens product and also noted that this is the first time that the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) will be sponsoring such a tournament as previously it came under the now defunct West Indies Cricket Federation (WICF).
He said also that while the tournament will be played in St. Lucia it was originally scheduled for Jamaica but because of air traffic and the lack of flights it had to be rescheduled and all eight teams that have qualified will be taking part.
Singh acknowledging that the Guyana team is the underdogs, urged them to play to the best of their ability, having had an important camp and pre-tournament preparation. Singh added that “the ball is now in their court.”
Meanwhile, the coach and manager of the team Michael Franco and Maylene Ramdhular were urged to act as “the father and mother of the team.”
The captain is all-rounder Zaheeda Samdally, who is in charge of the fourteen-women squad that includes fourteen-year-old Olivia O’Selmo.
Director of Sports Kumar in his send off of the team urged the batswomen and bowlers to do their country proud. He noted that while they are not number one they can aspire to achieve greatness, adding that he would like to see which one of the female’s portraits would be the first to be hung in the gallery of the Providence National Stadium.
Additionally, Vice President of the GCB and the person in charge of Female Cricket, Malcolm Peters was also high in praise for the team and made the recommendation that if the team should succeed in their campaign they should be “welcomed home with a steel band procession from the Cheddi Jagan International airport, Timehri to Georgetown,” and he predicted that “victory is assured.”
