By Neil Barry Jr.,
The Georgetown Cricket Assoc-iation’s (GCA) Queensway Cup limited overs competition gets underway today with three matches.
The knockout format of the game means teams face potential elimination in every match. The fixtures for this weekend were released by Shawn Messiah at the launching on Wednesday, with the Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) and Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) drawing byes into the next round. The format also allows for the tournament to be concise while retaining excitement as the winners are expected to be decided on October 28 at a venue to be announced.
Today, Police Sports Club will square off with Malteenoes Sports Club at Thomas Lands.
Last year, Police were eliminated in the second round by DCC while Malteenoes went down to DCC in an exciting semi final. Police will be hoping players such as Trevor and Troy Benn, Rawle Brown and Ryan Rajmangal have a better outing with the bat while Malteenoes, despite lacking regular skipper Steven Jacobs, who has joined the University of the West Indies, still boasts an imposing team.
Malteenoes will be looking to senior players Orin Forde, Deon Ferrier, and Kellon Carmichael, all of whom possess national experience. The winners of this game will play defending champions GCC.
At Queenstown, the University of Guyana (UG) will hope to dispose of Transport Sports Club who eliminated them in their first game last year.
UG appears to be better side of late. However, Transport will take the mental advantage of playing regular first division cricket as opposed to UG’s second division.
At Camp Road, the home side Everest takes on the Muslim Youth Organization (MYO).
This is the first time MYO will be playing under that banner in this tournament after competing last year as Vikings and the new squad has been more competitive in the second division.
Everest will look to improve on their showing in the last edition of the tournament when they were eliminated by GCC in round one. With several players with national experience available, including Rajendra Chandrika, Chanderpaul Hemraj and Amir Khan, the side can be expected to be much more competitive.
Tomorrow, last year’s other semi-finalist the Guyana National Industrial Corporation (GNIC) will open their account against Third Class at Malteenoes. GNIC will be wary of a still developing Third Class side, and will be cautious as to avoid a first round upset. Pacer Rawle Merrell bowls with lively pace while Elton Baker and Shawn DeSouza have been in good form while spinners Collis Butts and Orlando Fraser can be expected to play a keen role with the ball for GNIC.
The Guyana Defence Force is due to face off with the Vikings at home, and will also look to avoid a first round upset, as they were shocked last year by Ghandi Youth Organization. GYO themselves open their account against one of the lesser established sides in Ace Warriors. GYO went down to GNIC in the second round after a surprise effort against GDF, while Ace Warriors were comprehensively beaten by Malteenoes in the first round. The winner of the GYO/Ace Warriors match will be up against DCC.
With fantastic prizes at stake, the GCA reminds teams that timely submission of match report forms are important for the calculation of points to discern awardees. The 14-team competition will be played in colored clothes with white balls and the organizers decided to allow second division specific clubs to field two guest players from anywhere in the world so long as they can accommodate them.
This was done in an effort to make these teams more competitive and negate some of the disadvantage faced when playing against the first division teams.
