Monthly Archives: July, 2024

Shamar Joseph eyes Lord’s five-for vs England Jul 08, 2024 Sports Kaieteur Sports – (Newsday TT) – WEST INDIES fast bowler Shamar Joseph intends to write his name in the honour roll at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London when the regional side battle England in the first match of a three-Test series on July 10. Shamar Joseph The rookie pacer, 24, shot to fame last January with a devastating spell of fast bowling to dismantle hosts Australia in a huge upset win in Adelaide. Joseph, who only started playing professional cricket in 2023, rocked the Aussies with seven wickets for 64 runs to bowl the Windies to an unlikely win in the second Test. The series ended 1-1. Although still learning his craft, Joseph is not shy to set high standards for himself. In an interview on Sunday, Joseph said he plans to repeat his heroics and etch his name in Lord’s history with a five-wicket haul. The Lord’s honours board commemorates batsmen who have scored centuries at the famous ground as well as bowlers with five-wicket or ten-wicket hauls in Tests or one-day matches. Joseph told reporters on July 7, “I will put my name there for sure.” The Guyanese is eager to get the ball in his hands and take advantage of what is expected to be bowler-friendly conditions. “I’m actually excited to be here. Being at Lord’s, (it’s a dream) to play at this ground. England is known for good fast-bowling (conditions) and swing and all that.” He said his confidence remains on high despite playing just two Tests in his career. “That’s the only way for me. I feel like being confident and having the backing of teammates that believe in you (gives me strength). He said the vibe in the Windies camp remains positive since drawing that Test series Down Under. “From since the last tour in Australia, we maintain that energy. We keep that positive mindset and energy, that is an important part in our game.” With England legend Jimmy Anderson set to play his final Test match, Joseph hailed the prowess of the evergreen 41 year old, but said a fairytale ending is not in his script. “He’s such an amazing player, someone that I look up to… He has a lot of wickets at this level. I would wanna ruin that farewell.” Joseph said he enjoyed looking at matches at Lord’s – especially the Ashes – and seeing quicks such as Australian Mitchell Starc and Englishman Jofra Archer impress. “That’s something that I wanna come out and do also.” He said adapting quickly to the conditions is crucial. The Windies drew a three-day warm-up match against a First-Class Counties Select XI, which ended July 5, at Kent Kent County Cricket Ground, Beckenham. Joseph did not arrive in England in time for the warm-up but is expected to be in the 11 to face England in the opening match. The second Test bowls off from July 18-22 with the third Test scheduled for July 26-30.  Related Similar Articles

Illegal connection caused fire that destroyed East Ruimveldt houses Jul 08, 2024 News The fire blazing through the East Ruimveldt home Kaieteur News – Two houses were destroyed and one damaged on Saturday morning after a connection of illegal wires resulted in a fire along East Ruimveldt Squatting Area, Georgetown. This is according to the Guyana Fire Service (GFS). The GFS also confirmed that the inferno engulfed a one-flat wooden building owned and occupied by 39-year-old Brandon Britton. Despite firefighters’ efforts to extinguish the fire, the building and its contents were completely destroyed, rendering Britton homeless. “The purported cause of the fire was identified as a slack connection of illegal wiring, which resulted in arcing and sparking, subsequently igniting nearby combustible materials” the fire service reported. Additionally, the GFS said that the fire spread to a neighboring one-flat wooden building owned by Ruby Francis, 39, who lives there with her family of eight. Due to radiated heat, the entire western external wall of the building was destroyed. On Saturday, the GFS reported that they received a call about the fire around 11:11hrs. Firefighter units reportedly arrived on the scene at 11:13hrs and the first water jets were deployed at 11:14hrs. Notably, responding to the call were Water Tender #95, Water Tender #118, and Water Tender #18, carrying a total of 6,443 liters of water, along with thirteen firefighters. Firefighting efforts included one jet working from WT#118’s tank supply, one jet from WC#18’s tank supply, and one jet from WT#95’s tank supply. Light Pumps #A07 and #A16 also contributed by utilizing an open water source to extinguish the fire. Given the cause of the fire, the Guyana Fire Service continues to warn citizens to desist from using illegal connections for electricity. “These connections present a serious risk to both lives and properties since they can result in fires or electrocutions,” the fire service has emphasized. Related Similar Articles

Johnny Grave: West Indies’ Covid tour showed Big Three need strong opponents Jul 08, 2024 Sports Kaieteur Sports – Johnny Grave, the chief executive of Cricket West Indies, hopes that memories of the team’s bio-secure tour of England in 2020 will help to advance the narrative about Test cricket’s revenue-share model, in the wake of his remarks earlier this year that the current system is “completely broken”. Chief Executive of Cricket West Indies, Johnny Grave Speaking at Lord’s during MCC’s inaugural World Cricket Connects symposium – a gathering of many of the sport’s most influential players, administrators and media representatives – Grave expressed his hope that West Indies would once again prove a competitive force, just as they were in winning the first Test of the 2020 tour in Southampton, as well as each of their last two home series against England, in 2019 and 2022. But, he said, in the wake of CWI’s reported outlay of US$2 million to fulfil their tour of Australia in January and February, the onus was on cricket’s Big Three – India, England and Australia – to find a better means of propping up the economies of the sport’s less financially secure nations, rather than just sending their own teams on endless overseas tours, from which the host boards are able to replenish their coffers. “We don’t get any money at all from the Australian market, or from that tour, so it’s a double-whammy,” Grave said, in the wake of a Test tour on which West Indies again exceeded expectations with their thrilling series-levelling win at the Gabba in January. “There are a number of measures to ensure this competitive balance, and ensure that the three formats thrive. I think the easiest thing to do is say, well, this format doesn’t make money or isn’t sustainable in this market or that country, but if the game works together and has a collective mindset, there is plenty of money to go around to ensure the game can thrive.” Grave cited India’s ongoing T20I series in Zimbabwe, featuring a new-look team led by Shubman Gill, only days after their victory in the T20 World Cup in Barbados, as proof that the BCCI “cannot do more for the world game” in a pure playing capacity. Instead, he welcomed the suggestion voiced last year by Richard Gould, his counterpart at the ECB, that the time may be coming for touring teams to be paid a fee for fulfilling their overseas engagements. “Do we need to play more contextual, meaningful cricket? Absolutely,” Grave said. “But I think Richard’s point around being open to sharing revenue is a massive positive, because when we are talking about sharing revenue we are talking about three countries. Ben Stokes and Jason Holder hold microphones as they talk into a remote television broadcast camera, first day, first Test, England v West Indies, Ageas Bowl, Southampton, July 8, 2020 “One country cannot play any more cricket, cannot do more for the world game than they are doing, and that’s the BCCI. England have been fantastic, they have toured us pretty much every year, bar a few, since 2017. Is there more they could do for us? Not really. So at that point you have to look at the model and the finances, and for leaders of the ECB, Australia and India to be even talking about it, I take it as a positive indication of a shift in mindset that needs to happen.” England’s vulnerability to the fragmenting international game was made abundantly clear in the Covid-blighted summer of 2020, when West Indies were instrumental in “keeping the lights on”, in the words of the then-ECB chief executive Tom Harrison. By agreeing to play their three scheduled Tests behind closed doors and in bio-secure environments at Old Trafford and Southampton, West Indies helped fulfil the ECB’s contractual obligation to Sky Sports, with each Test valued in the region of £20 million. This in turn helped mitigate the ECB’s losses that still ended up being in the region of £100 million. “I think what Covid proved was that you can’t play against yourselves, and that you need to have opposition,” Grave said. “The better that opposition is, and the more balanced the game is, the better the product is, because then there’s genuine jeopardy. “In Covid everyone had to come together. The fact that we were coming here and generating no revenue was irrelevant. We were trying to save the game, because none of us knew whether the game as we knew it would ever happen again.” West Indies’ Test tour comes just weeks after the completion of the T20 World Cup in the Caribbean. Despite the hosts falling short of the semi-finals after a tight loss to South Africa in St Lucia, the sense of togetherness and expectation was palpable from a set of big-name players whose greatest financial opportunities still come on the T20 franchise circuit, but whose restored faith in CWI has been a notable aspect of Grave’s era as chief executive. “We’ve had to find balance, which was initially struck by speaking to the players in a respectful way and creating two windows, in the IPL and the CPL,” Grave said. “We then tried to have balance and flexibility with our players in how we schedule bilateral cricket – we rarely play over that Christmas and New Year period because it’s important for our players to be at home with their families – while we’ve also tried to create windows for them to go to other leagues where the calendar has allowed it. “So it’s all about balance. And at the moment Darren Sammy and Rovman Powell, the leaders of our T20 team, have really got those players focused.” Now the attention turns to the Test series against England, starting with a first Test at Lord’s – a venue that West Indies haven’t frequented since 2017. “It’s probably the pinnacle Test series that we play, it’s the barometer of how the team are developing,” Grave said. “We’re coming off a high, obviously it’s a long gap since that amazing day at the Gabba, and for a number of the players this will be the first time they’ve ever played at Lord’s. “They’re playing for the Richards-Botham Trophy, the ultimate example of friendship and camaraderie between England and West Indies. So being here it’s always special, but I think for our players to hopefully announce themselves to the English audience with a Test series at Lord’s is fantastic.” Related Similar Articles

AFC reaffirms commitment to changes in oil deal to benefit Guyanese -Patterson Jul 08, 2024 News Kaieteur News – The Alliance for Change (AFC) on Friday reaffirmed its commitment to making changes in the Guyana’s oil contract should the party be elected to Government, General Secretary David Patterson said. General Secretary of the Alliance for Change David Patterson. The AFC was part of the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) coalition government when the lopsided 2016 Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) was signed with oil giant ExxonMobil. At the party’s press conference held at the Centre For Change building, Railway Embankment, Kitty, Georgetown,  Patterson said that, “The Alliance For Change is in favor of any revision for any PSA which will be to the benefit of the Guyanese public and we maintain that position. So any revision that will be benefitting (our people) we will be supporting (it) and I have made this statement in parliament for every budget since 2020.” The party has been voicing its commitment to renegotiate for a better deal for a number of years, and in 2021 Patterson had appeared on an interview a Kaieteur Radio programme ‘Guyana’s Oil and You’ where he said that during the five years that the APNU/AFC was in government they did not get a chance to correct the lopsided deal. Further, Patterson said that should the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) government intend to renegotiate the oil contract, then the AFC will offer its “unconditional support.” In October 2022, Kaieteur News reported that the AFC again made known its commitment to renegotiate the 2016 oil deal and to stand with the current government to change the said deal with Exxon. The party’s Chairperson, Catherine Hughes had explained that the group believes renegotiating the agreement should not be approached in an isolated manner but the country’s leaders should hold hands on the matter. In response to a question by this publication, Hughes said, “the renegotiation of the contract should be considered in the same spirit with which we work together- Opposition and Government, we work together on issues that have to do with our border and as you know, the border dispute and this is where we’ve said quite a few times that we are willing to support the Government in going to Exxon as Guyana – a unified Guyana – to look at how, we renegotiate.” Former Leader of the AFC, Khemraj Ramjattan had previously pointed out that the whopping 10 billion barrel increase in oil reserves in the rich Stabroek Block is more than enough reason to get the oil company back to the table. “We have indicated, and I publicly have indicated that yes, indeed (we can renegotiate) because we understand the changed circumstances but more than that, the PPP when it was in Opposition had said that our agreement was so rotten that they will renegotiate. Did they fool all of us here? It would appear so because they have an obligation, a bounding duty to go now and renegotiate with all that is happening,” Ramjattan told the media. He added that while the AFC has already made its position clear about changing the contract due to the changed circumstance, he does not believe that General Secretary of the PPP, Mr. Bharrat Jagdeo would be willing to move in this direction. Related Similar Articles

Cricket West Indies honours two Board Directors for Exemplary Service Jul 08, 2024 Sports Kaieteur Sports – Cricket West Indies (CWI) proudly recognized two of its longstanding board directors for their exemplary service at a prestigious reception held in Barbados on Friday, June 28, 2024, the eve of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. The ceremony celebrated the remarkable contributions of CWI Directors, Mr. Enoch Lewis, President of Leeward Island Cricket Board, and Mr. Conde Riley, President of Barbados Cricket Association. Conde Riley (left) and Enoch Lewis after receiving their service awards (Photo: Shalina Joy) Mr. Enoch Lewis has dedicated over 18 years to CWI, while Mr. Conde Riley has committed more than 15 years to the organization. Both men have played pivotal roles in the development and success of West Indies cricket. The awards were presented by Dr. Kishore Shallow, President of Cricket West Indies, and Mr. Azim Bassarath, Vice President of Cricket West Indies. Dr. Shallow praised the awardees, stating, “Mr. Lewis and Mr. Riley have shown unwavering dedication and leadership within Cricket West Indies. Their contributions have been instrumental across regional cricket from junior to senior levels, and we are honoured to recognize their service. The task of service in public life is not an easy one; it requires immense commitment, sacrifices, integrity, and a passion for making a difference. Directors Lewis and Riley have embodied these qualities throughout their tenure.” The event was graced by the presence of distinguished guests, including the Prime Minister of Barbados, Hon. Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Saint Lucia, Hon. Philip J. Pierre, Prime Minister of Antigua & Barbuda, Hon. Gaston Browne, President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, H.E Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali, and Chairman of the International Cricket Council, Mr. Greg Barclay. (CWI) Related Similar Articles

PNCR contract with the People of Guyana Jul 08, 2024 Letters Dear Editor, On Sunday June 30, 2024, the curtains came down on what can be described as one of the most organized, democratic and transparent political party congresses in the history of Guyana. The 22nd Biennial Delegates Congress of the People’s National Congress Reform was an intense, high-energy affair, the likes of which Guyana has never witnessed. This was only possible because of impeccable planning and smart grassroots mobilization. The Congress featured many serious and memorable moments that have far-reaching national implications for all Guyanese. However, it was the Party Leader’s ‘Contract with the People of Guyana’ speech, which brought the delegates to their feet, in a standing ovation that will go down as one of the most impactful speeches of our times. It not only displayed the oratorical skills of Mr. Aubrey Compton Norton; it gave a glimpse into what Guyanese can look forward to in the near future… more than a ‘good life’, more than a ‘better life’, indeed, it promises Guyanese the chance to enjoy their ‘best life’ when the PNCR/Coalition is returned to Government at the next General and Regional Elections. The theme for the Congress was, “Forming the Next Government: Building a Just, Inclusive and Prosperous Society for All.” It represents a public declaration that was encapsulated in the now historic, “Contract with the People of Guyana” speech. This seminal Congress speech was remarkable for its clinical delineation of the social, political and economic challenges facing Guyanese at this critical juncture of our history. “Cometh the hour, Cometh the man;” …Aubrey Compton Norton and the PNCR has crafted a development strategy that will catapult all Guyanese to their ‘best lives’ in the shortest possible time. The People Centered Development Strategy (PCDS) will be holistic in scope. It prioritizes the development of all Guyanese. This is how the PCDS was defined by Mr. Norton in his speech, “It puts people first and will utilize the resources of Guyana to achieve the ultimate goal of providing a high quality of life to the people of Guyana through the direct and indirect transfer of resources to our people, to educate them, support their mobilization of resources to work, and for investment with the aim of alleviating and ultimately eradicating poverty while simultaneously resulting in the sustainable development of all communities and sectors of the Guyanese society, as well as the promotion of good governance and the creation of a just and prosperous society. The PCDS will ensure that the needs of the people such as healthcare, housing, water, electricity, education, transportation, and other social services are guaranteed. The New York PNCR Group is pleased to have joined the scores of delegates from the Diaspora who travelled from the USA and Canada at their own expense, to experience and participate meaningfully in this historic Congress. We congratulate the newly elected Executive of the PNCR; Leader, Hon. Aubrey Norton, M.P.; Chairman, Mr. Shurwayne Holder, M.P.; Treasurer, Mr. Elson Lowe, Vice Chairs, Elizabeth Williams-Niles and Mr. Vinceroy Jordan, M.P., as well as the 15-member Central Executive Committee. Guyanese are on the cusp of greatness with the new PNCR/Coalition. This is your ticket to enjoying your best life, guaranteed under the “Contract with the People of Guyana.” Yours sincerely,New York PNCR Group Related Similar Articles

.tdi_3.td-a-rec{text-align:center}.tdi_3.td-a-rec:not(.td-a-rec-no-translate){transform:translateZ(0)}.tdi_3 .td-element-style{z-index:-1}.tdi_3.td-a-rec-img{text-align:left}.tdi_3.td-a-rec-img img{margin:0 auto 0 0}@media (max-width:767px){.tdi_3.td-a-rec-img{text-align:center}} The Spicemas Corporation (SMC) extends its deepest empathy and support to everyone affected by the recent passage of...