SVGCA Inc driving towards larger coffers

With the main aim of providing much needed funding to prop up its youth development efforts, the executive of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Cricket Association Inc (SVGCA) has launched a car raffle.

The raffle was officially launched last Saturday afternoon with a “bat and ball” match at Heritage Square.{{more}}

There, the back yard/ road type cricket was revisited, using coconut bats, and with the traditional forms of the sport such as “Out ah man”, was played.

Prior to last Saturday’s launch, first vice-president of the SVGCA Inc Elson Crick, at a press conference held last Monday, explained the association’s reasoning.

“Although we are developing close relationships with our partners in the commercial sector, we have to raise more if we are going to develop cricket at the primary schools’ level… The primary schools’ level has to be our main reservoir, so we have to get the youngsters coming forward … We need to spend more money at that level,” Crick said.

Crick noted that the association will be seeking to raise $25,000 from the raffle of a 2006 Toyota Allex four-door car, which he said cost his organization approximately $25,000 to purchase.

“We are going to give it a real hard try… We will be taking the vehicle to different parts of the country where there are events planned…. We have 2,500 books and we expect the general to give us a real big support, because it is for youth cricket, it is for primary school cricket in St Vincent and the Grenadines,” Crick said.

Adding his piece to the venture, association head Kishore Shallow revealed, “One of the reasons that drove us to this is to offer our local players an incentive to improve the performance.”

As a further incentive, Shallow said that each player was given an entry to the raffle.

The draw of the raffle is set for September 5, the date scheduled for the hosting of the Super-40 final.(RT)