The Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) in partnership with Carib Beer and Pepsi yesterday launched the nationwide Twenty20 competition at the GCB Boardroom on Regent Street.
The tournament which will commence today will see eleven teams competing with three from each of the three counties.
The counties will play a round-robin, super-eight and knockout phase before the finals at Albion Sports Complex on December 3, where the winning team will walk away with one million Guyana dollars.
GCB President Ramsay Ali said that the cricket board has strategically placed the finals in Berbice due to their belief that massive crowds will flock the games in the Ancient County. Tournament director Robin Singh said that by the end of the competition, the best possible Guyana team will be picked to represent the country in the Caribbean Twenty20 tournament in January. “The format is designed to give opportunity to as many players as possible. The addition of the two developmental teams in the GCB President’s XI and Noble House Young Conquerors, cuts out the ambiguity that selectors tend to have, so now they will have a lot of games to look at the nation’s best players, in order to have a clear cut assessment of them,” Singh explained. “The competition is designed to get tougher at every stage. So when we get to finals, we have the best possible team to represent Guyana in the Twenty20 tournament next January in Trinidad,” Singh concluded. Matches will be played at venues all over the country such as Albion Sports Complex, Georgetown Cricket Club, Blairmont Community Centre, Everest Cricket Club, Wales Community Centre, Anna Regina Community Center, Skeldon and Demerara Cricket Club.
Each team will also be allowed two guest players and may enter those arrangements at any time during the competition.
Today’s matches at the Albion Community Centre will see the Corentyne Titans in double headers versus Marios Pizza West Berbice Super Kings and New Amsterdam Canje Tigers, while Noble House Young Conquerors and GCB President’s XI face off at Bourda.
