GCC carts off bulk of Under-15 awards

Managing Director Lifetime Realty and vice president of the Georgetown Cricket Association (GCA) Alfred Mentore hands over the championship trophy to Raj Nanan captain of Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) as other team members and executives of the GCA including president Bish Panday look on. (A Lawrence Fanfair photo)
Managing Director Lifetime Realty and vice president of the Georgetown Cricket Association (GCA) Alfred Mentore hands over the championship trophy to Raj Nanan captain of Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) as other team members and executives of the GCA including president Bish Panday look on. (A Lawrence Fanfair photo)

Managing Director Lifetime Realty and vice president of the Georgetown Cricket Association (GCA) Alfred Mentore hands over the championship trophy to Raj Nanan captain of Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) as other team members and executives of the GCA including president Bish Panday look on. (A Lawrence Fanfair photo)-sponsor promises bigger and better competition next year

 By Calvin Roberts

Competition winners Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) carted off the bulk of the awards when the Georgetown Cricket Association held its Lifetime Realty and Construction Under-15 presentation even as the sponsor promised a bigger and better competition next year.

At a simple presentation ceremony held at the Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) pavilion Friday evening,  GCC’s skipper Raj Nanan (Outstanding all round performance) and Winston Forrester (Most Runs) carted off individual prizes to go along with the championship trophy they received.
GCC,  with 127 points (seven wins from eight games), came out on top in the limited overs competition over Everest Cricket Club (ECC) who were the  only team to defeat them second on 109 points.

Malteenoes Sports Club (MSC) with 104 points, occupied the third position.

Nanan scored 211 runs with a highest score of 70. He also took 16 wickets and had  best returns of 5-4 whilst Forrester had an aggregate of 324 runs with a highest score of 61 not out.

Christopher Surat, (ECC) scored 215 runs with a highest score of 51 not out.

He also claimed 24 wickets with best figures of 6-18 to capture the Most Valuable Player (MVP) trophy.

Chris Teekaram of Third Class also won an individual award for his highest Individual score of 96.

Prior to the presentation of the trophies, president of the GCA, Bish Panday, congratulated GCC on winning the tournament.

Said Panday:”First of all congratulations to GCC for winning the tournament. You played well throughout and despite suffering the loss to Everest, you were still able to come back and win the championship and that speaks volumes for you as a team.

“This under-15 competition is part of a well thought-out structure of playing cricket at different levels that will also allow us to identify a nucleus under-15 team.

Earlier this year, we had our second-division presentation which was followed by the first-division presentation also,” Panday added.

“As I speak to you, play has been temporarily halted in our Over-40, Under-19 and the recently launched second-division limited overs competition.

“However, we remain committed to cricket and its development not only in Georgetown but Guyana and to a far extent, the West Indies thus we have dedicated a lot of time and energy into identifying young and emerging talent to hone into star cricketers for the future.”

Managing Director of sponsors, Lifetime Realty and vice-president of the GCA Alfred Mentore, in brief remarks, congratulated the teams for the generous sportsmanship they displayed throughout the competition and promised a bigger and better tournament next year.

“Over the past weeks, we watched as these talented youngsters displayed their skill and athletic abilities in a professional manner. I had envisaged the dream of me giving back to cricket years ago and today, with the culmination of this tournament, my dream has been made a reality.”

“I had envisaged that this tournament could be used as a vehicle to mentor these young cricketers and build their capacity at this crucial stage of their development. Many lessons have been learnt that would be beneficial to these young cricketers in the future, but the one true lesson I would hope they have learnt, is that not only winning is important, but how you play the game.

”We at Lifetime Realty were happy to be a part of this memorable tournament which was played in the true spirit of the game and to this effect, I want to say that next year’s tournament would be a bigger and better one with more trophies and cash prizes on offer to the outstanding performers.”