WDCA president wants cricket facilities

West Demerara Cricket Association 2022 Review

Author: Sean Devers
20-6 National wicketkeeper/batsman Kemol Savory was the West Demerara Cricket Association (WDCA) Player of the Year 2022.

Savory, who plays for West Demerara Police and has two fifties in nine Regional 50-over matches, hit 189 against Cornelia Ida before scoring 120 against Windsor Forest in the Odyssey Tours 50-over competition.

Savory, who also participates in Police GCA cricket, was on national duty and was available for only two matches so far.

Windsor Forest captain Aditya Kadarnauth scored 156 runs including 102 against Leonora and has also taken eight wickets so far
Ushardave Balgobin made an unbeaten 105 for CI against Windsor Forest, while Zeeburgs Ricardo Poloram, rated as the flashiest batsman in West Demerara, made 96 against Leonora. Malcolm Hubbard and Renaldo Renee scored two fifties.

Off-spinner Anil Sookdeo is the leading wicket-taker so far with 12 wickets from two matches in the tournament that featured 12 teams.

On November 11, the Royalty Vibes Sound System T20 tournament was launched with 16 teams participating.

New WDCA President Troy Khan revealed what’s happening to Cricket in the West.

Well, I can only talk about when we assumed government on March 2, 2022. To be honest, the biggest challenge in West Demeraras right now is infrastructure and land.

To date there is no proper full cricket ground between Meten-Meer-Zorg on the west coast of Demerara and the Welsh borders,
“Maybe that’s why some of our players are plying their trade at City,” Khan continued.

I know the government has improved some of these plots but much more needs to be done apart from erecting the building.

It’s very expensive for clubs to pay the bills for almost everything from playing the game, cutting the pitch, preparing the pitch, and this has been happening for years, said Khan, who played for Meten-Meer-Zorg Cricket Club, the club where he grew up.

I think in nine months we have achieved 85 per cent of what we set out to do, which was to play cricket at the Under-15, U-17 and U-19 levels.

Our senior tournament, which is almost at the semi-final stage, is the best I have seen since the days of Seeram and Asgarally.

We have five batsmen who are already scoring hundreds and a few bowlers are doing really well with the ball.

But the most pleasing was the under-15 captain Pameshwar Ram for the Demerara team and the under-17 captain Nityanand Mathura for Guyana. Sachin Balgobin was also part of the Guyana under-19 squad, added Khan, who represented West Demerara at under-19 and senior levels.

In August, GCB made a significant donation of cricket equipment to WDCA, and Khan said WDCA was delighted to receive the donation.

We believe it will help us effectively implement our coaching training program. Player gear is required, and multiple players now have the freedom to use gear and explore their skills in the game. explained Khan, who played police first division cricket for Georgetown from 1991 to 2001.

We have a lot we want to do in 2023. We are focused on getting the schools cricket program back on stream and it is very important that the first division teams are there to compete with the other teams.