Barbados Advocate article.
Bridgetown, Barbados - Fifteen teams will be parading in front of the sponsors tomorrow when the 2014 edition of the Grantley Adam International Airport (GAIA) T20 Cricket Tournament bowls off at Rices in St. Philip.
Last year’s friendly rivalries will be rekindled as 11 other aviation services entities and three community teams attempt to take down defending champions, Caribbean Aircraft Handling Ramp, in the eight week-long competition.
In a media conference held at the airport yesterday, it was revealed that teams from Four Roads, Gemswick and Harlington will be in the race alongside the likes of Fire Service, Customs, Gaia Inc., Caribbean Aircraft Handling PSA, Fast Rangers, DHL, Caribbean Aircraft Handling Ramp, Unity, Drive-A-Matic, Stoute’s Car Rentals, Courtesy and Flight Kitchen. With gameplay beginning on Tuesday, September 30th, and running all the way through to the grand final on November 29th, the teams will be contesting the 30 preliminary games in three zones out of which the two top teams from each group and the two best third-place finishers will be going forward to the quarterfinals.
Speaking during yesterday’s media briefing, Corporate Communications Specialist at GAIA, Keith Goddard, said that the tournament continued to gain momentum and was truly on the path to greatness. “Over the last two years, the interest continued to grow and I think that is because we have set a standard, and the goal and the vision for this tournament is to become the premier national community T20 tape-ball tournament on the island.”
With the teams now sporting sponsored T-shirts, Goddard added that the projection is to have sides decked out in uniforms for the 2015 tournament.
Prizes monies for the top-three teams remain the same as last year with first place taking away $2000.00, second place collecting $1000.00 and third settling for $750.00. Also up for grabs are Player of the Match and Player of the Series awards, while the new Chairman’s Prize will go to the best captain of the tournament. As was the case last year, each team will be allowed three guest players who are not current West Indies or Barbados players unless they happen to be employees of the airport entities.
Divi Southwinds General Manager, Alvin Jemmott, was on-hand as the resort provided sponsorship in the form of staycation prizes for Man of the Match winners and said that his company was pleased to be affiliated with the tournament. He went on to say that he felt that the partnership was important as it provided a much needed release for airport workers ahead of the busy time as well as providing the staff with an opportunity to be on the receiving end of the island’s tourism product.
“Sometimes, it is tough-going on airport staff and I am very, very happy to see that there is an outlet for the employees here at the airport to recharge their batteries and set themselves just at the beginning of what we perceive to be a busy tourism season 2014 into 2015. Keith (Goddard) mentioned that we would be once again be providing staycation packages for the winners of the semi-finals and beyond, but it is also important for us to make that contribution. So many times people work closely in conjunction with tourism but don’t get to enjoy the tourism product themselves, and the provision of these staycation packages allow just that – members working in tourism to enjoy their own tourism product. Sometimes we get very close to the trees but we don’t enjoy the forest,” Jemmott said.
With the organisers of the tournament also using the competition as an avenue to raise awareness for charitable causes, Goddard explained that this year the focus will be to raise funds for the Barbados Diabetes Association. Last year, we had everybody contributing to the HIV cause at Rices on Thursday nights. This year, we have decided that so many men are playing cricket, and we decided that we would focus on diabetes this year. A lot of men, as you know, are faced with that illness, and we thought that if we were going to have 225 men running around on a field, that it is only fitting that we find a cause that we could link to the cricket. And so we decided that throughout the course of the tournament, we would try to raise some funds to accommodate the Barbados Diabetes Association,” he said.
Other sponsors for this year’s tournament include Banks Holdings Ltd., Lynch Insurance Brokers, G4S, Cave Shepherd, Tropical Flags, Caribbean ARI, Wibisco, Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association and Oceans 2.
First Published In The Barbados Advocate.