Former West Indies captain Carl Hooper is also expected home for the competition.

Speaking at a Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) press briefing, Board president Chetram Singh said the GCB has made it clear that if a player does not participate in the El Dorado Five Star Inter-County championship, he will not be selected for the Regional Red Stripe tournament, unless he has a valid excuse. Singh said all the top players in Guyana are expected to be on show.

GCB’s vice-president Malcolm Peters, disclosed that Hooper has indicated his intention of playing in this year’s Inter-County limited overs competition, and represent Guyana in the Regional One-Day series.

Peters said the former West Indies all rounder requested the dates of the inter-county competition and this information was sent to him, but the GCB is awaiting a reply from him (Hooper). “What I know, is that his wife just bore him a daughter last week, so That might be stalling his reply.” Peters stated.

Peters however said Chanderpaul is expected in Guyana tomorrow and will be a part of the Demerara team for Saturday’s match against Berbice at Blairmont.

Speaking about his company’s sponsorship for this year’s tournament, Demerara Distillers Limited’s Marketing Manager, Antonius Raghubansie, told Stabroek Sport the inter-county competition is the premier one-day competition in Guyana and his company is happy to be associated with it, especially since the big names such as Sarwan, Chanderpaul, (Narsingh) Deonarine, (Sewnarine) Chattergoon, the (VIshal and Mahendra) Nagamootoo and others will be on show.

Raghubansie said this year, DDL has pumped one and a half million dollars into the competition to cover the cost of running off the championship, but the company will be making additional contributions in the form of tents, chairs and refreshments for players and officials among other things.

“So far we are satisfied with the work the Guyana Cricket Board has put into this year’s competition and we are more than happy with their performance over the past two years.”

According to Raghubansie, DDL sponsored the inter-county championship in the past, but had withdrawn because they were not happy with the way things were done. “But Chetty (Singh) and his team have done a lot of work over the past two years to improve things and we are happy to be back on board for the third consecutive year.”

Raghubansie said also he is happy that this year the competition will be played at different venues from Wales on the West Bank Demerara to Skeldon in Berbice.

Responding to Raghubansie’s comments, Singh said without sponsors there would be no tournament, so we are obviously happy with DDL coming forward. “This will help us to prepare for the Regional One-day tournament also, and it will be good to see the best players in the country in action The umpires for Saturday’s fixture are; D. Somwaru and C. Alfred with R. Latiff being the third umpire.

On Sunday, Demerara will tackle Essequibo at LBI with umpires Eddie Nicholls and D. Balgobin calling play. The third umpire is A. Brijcoomar.

Next Wednesday (September 17, Esequibo and Berbice will do battle at Wales with umpires D. Anandjit and J. Jeffrey in charge of things. The third umpire is Brijcoomar.

The final is set for September 21 at the Skeldon ground, Berbice. The umpires are D. Somwaru and Nicholls, while the third umpire is C. Brusch.