Chanderpaul cops top GCB awards
Guyana Chronicle
December 21, 2003
AFTER leading the Guyana team to victory in the 2003 Red Stripe Bowl, coupled with great performances with the bat against Australia earlier this year, West Indies middle order batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul has copped the prestigious Cricketer-of-the-Year award (Clive Lloyd Trophy).
He also walked away with the Best Batsman-of-the-Year award (Rohan Kanhai Trophy) when in the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) annual awards ceremony was held at the Ocean View International Hotel on Friday night.
All-rounder Mahendra Nagamootoo got the best Bowler-of-the-Year (Lance Gibbs Trophy) while Zamal Khan nabbed most Improved Player-of-the-Year award (Robert Christiani Trophy) and the Guysuco Trophy for being the Best Fieldsman in the Guyana U-19 Team 2003.
Khan’s captain in the U-19 competition Assad Fudadin won the Guysuco Trophy for the Highest Individual Score (127) and the Jairam Pelam Trophy for the Most Valuable Player.
North Essequibo nabbed the Tesm-of-the-Year award (President’s Trophy) after coming out victorious in Essequibo’s U-15, U-19 limited overs and DDL three-day competitions.
Special recognition was awarded to the victorious Guyana 2003 Red Stripe Bowl team, female players Ms Candacy Atkins and Ms Indomattie Goordial for being selected to the 2003 West Indies Women’s World Cup team, and young Leon Johnson who wrote his name in the record books for being one of the youngest batsman to score a century (149) on debut in Inter-county cricket.
For the Corporate and Venue Awards, the Hand-in-Hand Mutual Fire & Life Insurance Company Limited received an award for contributing to the development of cricket through continued sponsorship, while Imam Bacchus and Sons and the Wales Community Centre copped the Cricket Venue Awards for contributing to the development of cricket in Guyana.
Seven individual awards were given out to Bharrat Gokul for outstanding service to cricket as a scorer.
Seelochan Singh (a.k.a Bungar) for his service rendered to cricket as a curator, Harnarine Tiwari, for long and distinguished service as a cricket administrator. John Bart, for service rendered as a supporter and friend of cricket, Alfred O. Abdool for contributing to the development of cricket in Guyana as a player and administrator, Norman McLean, for his contribution to the development of cricket in Guyana as a player and administrator and Professor Aubrey Bishop for outstanding service to cricket as a player and an administrator.
Speaking at the awards ceremony, GCB president Chetram Singh, who outlined proposed plans for GCB in 2004 that include a national camp in January, coaching seminars for level one and two coaches, workshop for managers, assistance in the preparation of the women’s cricket competition, and assistance to develop rural cricket, among others.
Minister of Sport Ms Gail Teixeira, told the gathering that the country needs to see cricket and sports in general as an investment.
One matter of concern to the Minister was the issue of discipline in sports, “when a player is disciplined it becomes a (quote on quote) political issue, if we want to do well we need to ‘steel’ our players.”
The major challenge of Guyana as a sporting country though will be met next year, since we would need to meet the needs of the World anti-doping convention, the Minister said. If this is not met players who fail would be axed from their respected sport.
According to the minister, her ministry has prepared a range of seminar and workshops for 2004 so that players would become aware of the danger that they can put themselves into when using illegal substances. (Faizool Deo).