Pizza Hut $$ for Gomez cricket

OVER $100,000 in sponsorship and cash incentives will be on offer to local cricketers involved in this year’s Pizza Hut/Gerry Gomez North-South Cricket Classic.

This year’s four-day match is scheduled to be played between January 2 and 5 at the Queen’s Park Oval in Port-of-Spain. According to Prestige Holdings marketing manager Nigel Bissoon at the launch of the classic yesterday, the significance of the current West Indies team touring Zimbabwe and South Africa, is that so many young players have been given a chance to perform at the highest level. And he asked the question: “From where have these players come?”

Bissoon answering his own query said: “They would never have had the opportunity if they had not displayed their talents in competitive First-Class matches in their home countries, matches which would have given the regional selectors an opportunity to see what they have to offer. “That is why it is so important for the various cricket boards in the region to organise as many competitive matches as possible to give the youngsters a chance to make their mark and display the excellence for which West Indies cricket was once known and respected throughout the world,” Bissoon said. He said that that is the reason Pizza Hut decided to throw their full support behind the annual North-South classic, which is an excellent platform through which the up-and-coming cricket stars can display their wares.

The Pizza Hut man noted that this year’s match will act as a forerunner to the annual Carib Beer Cricket Series which gets underway one week later. He said with Brian Lara, Daren Ganga, Mervyn Dillon and Dave Mohammed out on Test duty it will give other budding cricketers a great opportunity to stamp their class and impress the selectors. Bissoon made it clear: “Pizza Hut believes in excellence in everything that we do, in the same way that Gerry Gomez exemplified excellence in his contribution to cricket, both on and off the field and later as an administrator at club, national, regional and international levels.” He said as a result and in consultation with the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board, it was agreed that something must be done to ensure a high standard of play is maintained throughout. “We want the payers to approach the game with the seriousness it deserves,” Bissoon said. He pointed out it is traditional to give awards to players at the end of games, but a batsman may score 28 runs and receive an award for highest scorer, “this is unacceptable and only breeds mediocrity.”

So this year’s Pizza Hut awards will go to the batsman with the highest score over 75 runs — $1,000.  Each batsman scoring 100 will get $1,000; the team scoring in excess of 300 runs will collect $2,500; and the bowler to take five wickets in an innings will collect $1,000. In addition, Pizza Hut will give $100 to every fieldsman taking a catch, and wicketkeeper effecting a stumping.  There will also be an award to the “Man of the Match.” Bissoon said: “In other words, we are seeking to promote excellence not reward mediocrity.” Fans were not left out of the incentive scheme, as the first 100 to enter the Queen’s Park Oval on each of the four days will get a personal pan pizza each. Meanwhile, North have named Imran Jan as captain of their team, with Shazam Babwah his counterpart.

The teams:
NORTH — Imran Jan (capt), Dwayne Bravo (vice-capt), Aneil Kanhai, Ricardo Powell, Lincoln Roberts, Earnil Ryan, Jonathan Augustus , Lendl Simmons, Ricardo Patty, Reyad Emrit, Kapil Subran, Samuel Felix, Kieron Lynch, Petrock Nicholas. 
Manager/coach is Claude Phillip. Andre Lawrence is chairman and Charles Gullien and Phillip will pick the final team.
SOUTH — Shazam Babwah (capt), Denish Ramdin (vice-capt), Tishan Maraj, Kenton Thompson, Sherwin Ganga, Gregory Mahabir, Rodney Sooklal, Davindra Krishna, Avidesh Samaroo, Marlon Black, Theodore Modeste, Denzil James, Brent Harriot, Gibran Mohammed.
Manager/coach is Roland Sampath.