By James Persaud
The two New York Softball Cricket League teams that will be representing the league in Guyana are sponsored by Hafeez Ali of Rockaway Auto Sales and Car Rental. Mr. Ali has businesses in New York and Guyana; he is ardent supporter of cricket.
Boodram Deopaul will captain the NYSCL Legends.
At the presentation meeting Mr. Ali said that he knows how hard it is to get a team to Guyana and he gave praise to the league for their efforts in taking two teams and that he was glad to have his business associated with the league’s efforts.
Well Vijay Seonarine of United Stars and Boodram Deopaul of Triumph will be moving to Guyana for at least a week, as the current captains of the 2011 NYSCL Independence and Legends cup champions. These two captains will be leading two strong teams, with players who have demonstrated that they are the best in this version of cricket.
These captains will be well assisted by their vice-captains in Bobby Pahalad and Linden Langhorne in their respective teams.
Vijay Seonarine, a player who came from the village of Port Mourtant in Guyana, a village that has produced some of the best cricketers in the likes of Rohan Khanai. Seonarine played many big games for his Port Mourtant team before representing Berbice in the inter-county championship. He represented Guyana in 1997 and 1998 before migrating to the United States.
He is tall and lanky and is built more suited as a pace bowler, well that is where he start his cricket career, he later developed his likeness of keeping wicket and as his keeping got better so was his batting. He is a hard hitting opening batsman and when he is not keeping he would do well as a cover fielder. He led his team Guyana All Stars to the 2011 NYSCL Independence Cup championship.
Vijay Seonarine will skipper the NYSCL AllStars team.
A resolute legend is coming back home, Boodram Deopaul played his hard ball cricket representing his village Triumph and played second division cricket for GDF. In the mid eighties he played softball cricket for one of the most prestigious clubs, Kerry Packer in Georgetown.
He is the current captain of the NYSCL Legends (players over 45) team; he took the team to four finals and has only lost once.
The NYSCL All Stars team has dominated the United States Inter States tournaments, winning in Florida and New York many times. The players representing the league in the Guyana Cup come from a wide cross section of all the teams in the league. The league has put together a team that is most suited for the Twenty20 format, which including many all rounder’s.
The strength of the team will be their bowling which will be led by two times NYSCL Cricketer of the Year, Bobby Pahalad and with support from his brother Bhola. Bobby is a bowler with genuine pace while Bhola, bowls well on dirt wicket and gets a lot of swing. Amit Moonsammy is traveling with the team and he is without a doubt the best leg spinner in the game today.
These guys will get good support from their captain Vijay Seonarine, Mo Khan, Mahendra Seeram, Karan Ganesh, Vicky Subkarran, Shazam Hussain, Tulsiram Mangroo, Ryan Ramjas, Satesh Parsram, Ricky Edwards and Vijay Bersford.
The NYSCL Legends has dominate the softball cricket competitions that has as an age limit, while in the United States the age limit is over 45 the Guyana Masters is over 40. These players of the more mature age are most eager to display their skill and talents to their counterpart back home in Guyana.
New York Softball Cricket president Eric Ferrier will be the coach/manager for the tour.
The champion of age limit softball cricket batting Tony Fernandez is looking forward to playing in Guyana; he has won the batting champions awards in Inter States competitions for four consecutive years. He is a hard hitting batsman who plays for Country Boys and is still one of their leading batsmen.
This Legends team is also packed with all-rounder’s, and has added some new faces in Ravi Etwaroo, Ronald Evelyn, Ravi Sugrim, Jagdesh Arjune, Onkar Singh, Rickford Mayers and Orin Jackson. This team has one of the best all-rounder’s at this level of cricket in Cedric Beaton.
He is one of the leading bowlers on the team and he would be getting support from Linden Langhorne, Ronald Evelyn and Boodram in the pace bowling. In the spinners corner there is Ravi Etwaroo, Ivor Chan, Cecil Hodge and Onkar Singh.
The team also has two of the best batsman, wicketkeepers in the game, Rabindranauth Singh and Jagdesh Arjune. The other batting will come from Julian Holder, Orin Jackson, Rickford Mayers, Joseph Jerrick and Ravi Sugrim.
The managers for the tour will be Sase Radhay for the Legends and JP Singh representing the All Stars. The NYSCL President Eric Ferrier will be traveling with the teams and he will be a Manager / Coach.