Web Posted - Thu Jul 08 2004

“Nothing but excellence.”
These words were used by Erskine King, Director of the National Sports Council (NSC) to describe the Sir Garfield Sobers International Schools cricket tournament, which bowls off at 11 a.m. at various venues island wide from Monday. King said that, “a tournament bearing the name of Sir Garfield Sobers should be associated with nothing but excellence”.

He expressed the sentiment in his address at the official launch of the 18th annual staging of the tourney at the Barbados Tourism Authority (BTA) yesterday. Among those also attending yesterday’s launching were Ray Chee-A-Tow, Development and Export Manager of Banks Holdings Ltd.; Anthony Shaw, Marketing Manager of Scotia Bank, Donald O’Shaughnessy, CEO of Digicel, Sir Garfield Sobers himself and Averil Byer, Acting Senior Vice President of the Barbados Tourism Authority.

The tournament will comprise ten days of high quality cricket, culminating with a the final at Kensington Oval on Tuesday, July 27 and a “Festival Game” at Dover on Wednesday, July 28. The tourney, which began in 1987, has taken on the status of a schools World Cup of cricket, with up to 24 schools, 20 regional teams plus four international teams, competing this year.

The melting pot of talent from within the region and outside has acted as a breeding ground for the West Indies Test side and other extra-regional territories as well.

Patron of the tournament Sir Gary, the only cricketer at the international level to hit six sixes off a single over, and the first to tally 8 000 Test runs was also present at the launch.

He said the increasing quality of the tournament, which has risen steadily over the years, has seen the number of teams participating grow.

There will be two teams from the US competing as well as teams from Antigua, Guyana and Jamaica.

This year will be the second time Jamaica is making an appearance in the competition since 1987.

Digicel, who recently secured a five-year contract to sponsor West Indies cricket, will sponsor this tournament for the second consecutive year. Sir Gary also thanked long-standing sponsors, Scotia Banks, Pine Hill Dairy (PHD) and Banks Holdings Ltd., as well as the BTA and the NSC for their valuable assistance in making the competition a reality.

The teams begin to arrive tomorrow and all the teams should be in the island by Sunday when there will be a welcome reception at the Plantation Restaurant on 6.30 p.m.

Compliments of the Barbados Advocate

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