$44,000 Carib Sunday League final tomorrow

ALESCON COMETS and PowerGen Sports will be going after a winners cheque of  $30,000 when the Carib Sunday League final takes place at Guaracara Park, Pointe-a-Pierre, tomorrow starting at 2.30 pm. Members of both teams were present at a press briefing at Carib Brewery yesterday, and both skippers sounded confident ahead of the biggest clash in domestic limited overs cricket. Alescon Comets, winners of  the title on three previous occasions, are considered the best one-day team in the country and will be vying to prevent PowerGen from taking their title at their third attempt.

Suruj Ragoonath, Alescon Comets’ skipper sounded very confident and told PowerGen they will be cast aside in the final and will have to settle for second place status for a third successive time. PowerGen has been in the final for the past two years and tomorrow they will be making a hat-trick of appearances under the floodlights at Guaracara. “PowerGen will be beaten into second place and will join the likes of Merryboys who have lost out on three occasions at the Park also.” But the PowerGen captain Samuel Badree said he wished both teams the best, “and may the better team on the night win.” He said, “we are going into this match to end the losing streak and we are sending a message to Comets to look out we are coming at you very hard on Saturday.”

Winners of the match will collect $30,000, while the runners-up will take away $14,000. There will also be a lot of giveaways courtesy sponsors Carib. Five patrons entering the arena will win two tickets each for the one-day internationals on April 24 and 25 at the Queen’s Park Oval. Winning ticket holders will also receive Carib and other brand gear from the sponsors and there will be a large Carib bottle offering the batsmen $5,000 for a plump hit. Every six hit during the game will be rewarded with a $600 prize. But the money will go to a charity of choice selected by the teams.

Already PowerGen have selected the Home for Disabled Children as their charity, while Comets will give their lot to the Pierre Road Community Council. Chairman of the National Cricket League and Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board of Control (TTCBC) first vice-president Dudnath Ramkeesoon said Carib’s sponsorship of domestic cricket is over $500,000 and players of today are very lucky with the financial rewards they get for playing the game. Colin Murray of Carib said after looking at this season’s statistics to date, he was very heartened by the performances of the players. “It is so important that clubs in this country continue to develop the youth and without this we will never climb back up the ladder of success.

“I am happy to see the good scores that batsmen have been getting in domestic cricket and I say to the groundsmen continue the work you are doing in a bid to promote true pitches to play on. “I will like to make a call to the TTCBC, to get in touch with Brian Lara and see if they can get him to go around to the cricket clubs and speak to their membership. “Members must try to speak to him and try to figure out how this man thinks. Lara must be used by the TTCBC to elevate cricket in Trinidad and Tobago and this will benefit us here and the Caribbean as a whole,” Murray said.