Second division GCA cricket competition launched

GCA Head stresses importance of educated cricketers

Bish Panday (centre, left) and Michael Cummings handing over the trophy to Alfred Mentore (centre) in the presence of representatives of GCA and UG including Vice Chancellor Vincent Alexander (right)

The Georgetown Cricket Association (GCA) second division two-day cricket competition jointly sponsored by Cummings Electrical and P & P Insurance Brokers was launched on Wednesday afternoon at the Learning & Research Centre of the University of Guyana (UG), Turkeyen Campus.
GCA President Alfred Mentore said these are challenging times for businesses and individuals and the continued commitment of these two special sponsors cannot go unmentioned, especially in light of the global economic crisis.
Mentore spoke about the importance of education among cricketers and explained that this was the reason UG was chosen for the launching instead of one of the clubs in the city.
“It is because of a commitment I gave on assuming the Presidency to develop and form a marriage between cricket and education.
Ultimately through our relationship the capacity of this institution’s cricketing programme will be enhanced to compete with its regional counterparts. Incidentally, the University will be fielding a team to compete in this tournament and depending on their performances they can stake a claim to be elevated to our first division level. In order for this elevation to take place one team has to be promoted and another relegated. When this happens we can possibly see some selections to the combined campuses cricket team,” Mentore explained.
Mentore said that it is often said that education is the vehicle for success. “This applies whether its academics or sports. Some time ago there was a study done by one of the professors of UWI that found that West Indian Players are intellectually inferior to their counterparts. As upsetting as the findings were, it highlight the importance placed on education by other country’s teams. Therefore, in order for us (by us I mean regionally) to compete on their level we must have players on their level too, academically,” Mentore said.
The GCA Boss said the present unsatisfactorily situation cannot be reversed overnight and would take considerable work and time from all stakeholders…..the players, parents, Clubs, Associations and other bodies responsible for cricket in Guyana to remedy this situation.
“Today’s launching is a step in that direction. We hope by launching this tournament here today, attention can be drawn to this important area of our development,” Mentore informed.
The former national youth cricketer and Golfer urged the media to find stories that speak of the success of education and sport since he feels that such positive stories would only serve to inspire young sportsmen and women and highlight the progress being made in development of sports in Guyana.
Michael Cummings of Cummings Electrical and P&P Insurance Brokers’ Bish Panday also spoke at the launching.
Meanwhile, the GCA has called off their first and second division competitions stet for this weekend due to the heavy rain in the city.