Digicel sponsor Sir Gary schools cricket

BRIDGETOWN: Cellular phone company Digicel have announced sponsorship of the 2003 Sir Garfield Sobers International Schools’ Cricket tournament this summer.

Digicel, recently granted a licence to operate in Barbados, are widening their base in the Caribbean, and their involvement in the Sir Garfield Sobers tournament is a major boost for the event, set this year for July 8-28. “This might be our biggest year,” Sir Garfield Sobers said at a recent press conference to launch the sponsorship. “It is so important to have Digicel on board, so that they can help us continue to keep this tournament at the highest level. “I think that having Digicel on board with us will give us the opportunity which we have been looking to for some time,” he added.

The tournament, now in its 17th year, attracts teams from throughout the Caribbean, and other major cricketing territories, and its international flavour is attractive to the new sponsors. “Our support for such a tournament is a continuation of the developmental activities in which Digicel has been involved in since setting up our first operation in the Caribbean, in Jamaica, just over two years ago,” Digicel’s Chief Executive Officer Donal O’Shaughnessy, said. The tournament has welcomed teams — in the past — from England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Australia, South Africa, and Canada, and double world batting record holder Brian Lara appeared in the tournament during the 1980s for his Trinidadian school, Fatima College. Current champions are Barrack-pore Senior Comprehensive School.