Guyana’s Winston Forrester received the Best Batsman Award after accumulating a total of 410 runs from nine matches at the 24th Annual Sir Garfield Sobers International Schools Cricket Tournament 2010 in Barbados.
Forrester competed with Top Level Academy of Guyana in the tournament which was won by Dulwich College of England.
Forrester had an average of 45.56 with a highest score of 133.
He also scored two half centuries and had an excellent strike rate of 139.9 after acquiring his runs from 293 balls.
Playing in Zone `B’ of the Two Zone, 18-team tournament, Top Level Academy won their zone before losing in the semifinals to Queen’s Park Club Coaching School of Trinidad & Tobago.
They ended third in the competition.
Forrester, who also won the `Best Batsman’ trophy two years ago (2008) in the Georgetown Cricket Association Lifetime Realty Under-15 tournament, said he found the exposure at this level an excellent opportunity to further develop his cricketing aspirations.
The young batsman said he is looking forward to playing on the National Under-19 team next year.
He credits his success to placing more emphasis on the mental aspect of his game by applying more mental match simulations, visualization and imagery skills towards his game after he realized that planning strategy, fitness; technical skills and talent were not enough.
Forester, who also is an off-spinner, took three wickets for 106 runs from 27 overs.
The St. Joseph’s High School student said he will be writing his CSEC Examinations next year and hopes the structuring of the Inter Association and Inter County Under-19 tournaments are held at convenient times such as weekends and during the Easter Holidays so that it will allow him to fulfill his cricketing aspirations.
Forrester, the GCC Under-19 vice-captain, has his sights on excelling at the upcoming GCA Under- 19 tournament in order to be selected on the Georgetown team.
He also hopes to take his form into the GCA second division tournament where his team has already won all three games played so far in their zone of the 40 overs-a-side competition. He also hopes to perform well to make the Demerara and possibly the Guyana team next year.
