GCA’s Massiah pleased with past season but wants to see more grounds available
Jan 12, 2018 , https://www.kaieteurnewsonline...e-grounds-available/
Chairman of the Georgetown Cricket Association (GCA) Competition Committee Shaun Massiah said he is looking forward to more grounds being made available by clubs as they prepare for the new season which is set to bowl off on January 27.
Speaking with Kaieteur Sport yesterday, Massiah who also plays for Transport Sports Club said that despite the challenges, 2017 was a fine year for the GCA whereas they were able to successfully host a number of competitions at various levels.
Massiah pointed out that a number of players were selected for the respective national teams and some went on to represent the West Indies which is a motivation for the others. Five Guyanese have been selected to play for the regional side at the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup set to start shortly in New Zealand with all of them playing for clubs in the GCA; Ashmead Nedd (DCC), Bhaskar Yadram (Everest), Ronaldo Alimohamed (GCC), Raymond Perez (DCC) and Joshua Persaud (GNIC SC).
Massiah pointed out that one of the biggest challenges for the past year was the availability of grounds and he hopes that clubs will make their venues available more regularly for the upcoming season.
“There was some improvement in this area coming to the end of the previous season and we hope that this can continue so more competitions can be played. Due to this we find that certain tournaments take a long time to complete and this is one of the biggest hurdles we face,” he said.
Another obstacle is the lack of adequate covers at most of the venues. “A number of clubs have recently acquired covers and it would be nice to see if others can do likewise so play will not be affected as much when it rains,” he noted.
Sponsorship can be challenging but while expressing gratitude to the various sponsors, Massiah added that they are looking to obtain sponsorship for U15, U19 and first division 50-over competitions which will help to further boost the young players.
The GCA’s AGM will be held on January 30th at the Muslim Youth Organisation and Massiah is looking forward to a full turn out of the clubs so they can iron out certain issues affecting them. He stated that the GCA is embarking on hosting coaching clinics and umpiring seminars for the players so they can be made aware of the laws of the game, especially the 2017 code.
The Competition’s Committee Chairman added that he would like to see the Transport Sports Club ground being upgraded soonest so its members do not have to rely on other grounds to train. This he said has been in the pipeline for some time now and it’s affecting the players immensely.
“MYO has recently re-laid their pitch which is a step in the right direction and we hope to see other clubs following suit.” He informed that they also started the New Building Society second division 40-over and the first division two-day tournaments, and will be staging the final of the first division T20 shortly.
Massiah congratulated those players who were selected for national duties and thanked the ground curators as well as the Georgetown Cricket Umpires’ and Scorers Association. (Zaheer Mohamed)