By Ramona Luthi
The Guyana Telephone & Telegraph company (GTT) has announced that it will be the main sponsor of the Guyana Amazon Warriors during this year’s highly anticipated Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) games.
Chief Executive Officer of GTT, Justin Nedd made the announcement during a colourful sponsorship launch at the Presidential Suite at the Guyana National Stadium on Tuesday.
Nedd said that CPL 2017 promises to be very exciting, while noting that “GTT, will be bringing the heat, the passion and positive vibes to cricket and the Guyana Amazon Warriors. We promise nothing short of excitement for CPL in Guyana 2017. GTT and the Guyana Amazon Warriors will blaze these stands and grass mound on match day in full party mode.”
Moreover, the GTT CEO encouraged the public to “be like the Amazon Warriors” and make a positive impact on the lives of others. “We want everyone to embrace what it means to be an Amazon Warrior. We want you to be strong, courageous and powerful. We want you to stand up for what you believe in and we want you to make a positive impact to your families and the community” he said.
Nedd proudly highlighted that as a result of GTT’s involvement with the Amazon Warriors this year, several local talents were granted a platform for them to showcase their skills. Some of these individuals were identified as singer; Calvin Burnett and producers, Drew Thoven and John Green.
Burnett is the voice of the Guyana Amazon Warrior’s Theme song for 2017.
In addition, the GTT CEO noted that the company has also taken on the responsibility of moulding 15-year-old, Sean Glasgow, of Blairmont, Berbice, into a future Amazon Warrior.
“We also [gave] young cricketer, Seon Glasgow, the opportunity to live his passion through our sponsorship of his participation in the Sir Garfield Sobers’ cricket tournament in Barbados. Our investment in this young cricketer is our nurturing of our future Amazon Warrior” Nedd said.
Member of Parliament and Director of Sports, Christopher Jones, who was present at the ceremony, congratulated GTT on partnering with the Guyana Amazon Warriors. In his brief remarks he noted, among other things, that sports has the potential to “bring together a nation.”
Meanwhile, Assistant Operations Manager of the Guyana Amazon Warriors, John Ramsingh said that the collaboration with the telephone company is aimed at providing “more information, more hype, more opportunities to get to see these matches live and even a chance to interact with international, regional and our very own local players.”
To this end, Ramsingh posited that “together with GTT, we plan to unveil a number of promotions and competitions where the people of Guyana will have the opportunity to participate, to get the opportunity to win free tickets to the games and even win GTT special prizes. In the coming weeks, leading up to the games you will be provided with all the details of these initiatives.”
Hero CPL will commence on August 4, 2017, and will conclude on September 9, 2017. The Guyana leg will see matches on August 17 against the Jamaica Tallawahs, August 19 against Trinbago Knight Riders, August 20 against Barbados Tridents, and August 22 against St Lucia Stars. All of the outlined matches will be hosted at the Guyana National Stadium at Providence, East Bank Demerara.
The Caribbean Premier League (CPL) is a franchise-based T20 format cricket tournament that combines two of the most compelling aspects of Caribbean Life – dramatic, exciting cricket and vibrant party atmosphere.
The performance of the Guyana Amazon Warriors team in CPL has been competitive thus far, having contested the finals in 2013, 2014, and 2016 tournaments and reaching the semi-finals in 2015.
Over the years, the Guyana Amazon Warriors squad has included cricket stars such as Mohammed Hafeez, Sohail Tanveer, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Lasith Malinga, Marchant de Lange, Martin Guptill, Bradley Hodge, Christopher Lynn, Adam Zampa and many others.
Furthermore, the team also included, internationally recognised, West Indian T20 players such as Sunil Narine, Dwayne Smith, Denesh Ramdin, Rayad Emrit, Lendl Simmons, Veerasammy Permaul, Devindra Bishoo, Christopher Barnwell, Shimron Hetmyer and more.
The Warriors team for 2017 consists of Martin Guptill, Rayad Emrit, Sohail Tanveer, Chadwick Walton, Christopher Lynn, Rashid Khan, Jason Mohammed, Steven Taylor, Veerasammy Permaul, Roshon Primus, Gajanand Singh, Assad Fudadin, Steven Jacobs, Keon Joseph, Steven Katwaroo, Shimron Hetmeyer, and Muhammad Ali Khan.
Hero CPL has announced that the finals of the 2017 tournament will take place at the new Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Trinidad from September 5 to 9.
