Kishore Shallow confident of re-election

President of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Cricket Association Inc (SVGCA) Kishore Shallow is confident of retaining the post, when the association holds its Annual General Meeting this Saturday at the Arnos Vale Playing Field.{{more}}

An agenda item on Saturday’s AGM is the election of officers, and Shallow, as he made his remarks at the association’s annual awards and gala dinner last Saturday night at the Arnos Vale Playing Field, noted that he is in it to continue.

Without disclosing if anyone will be challenging him for the post, Shallow quipped, “According to the polls, I am leading for the position.”

Expressing the view that his executive has done enough over the past two-year tenure to deserve another term, Shallow used the platform afforded him to lay down some of the programmes to be pursued once re- elected.

Among the list is the increase in prize monies for the various competitions; a restructuring of the Premier Division; the establishment of a cricket academy, as well as an indoor facility; and the recording of this country’s cricket history.

“We will continue to increase the prize monies to make hard ball cricket more attractive… From next year we are going to move the Premier Division $5,000,” Shallow promised.

He noted that the increase is in keeping with a previous promise and will go in unison with the revamped Premier Division, in which there will be six teams, which will play each other twice.

Also, Shallow in his remarks, revealed increases to the prize monies for the First Division and women’s competitions.

Shallow said that as part of the SVGCA Inc strategic plan, there will be the coming into being of a cricket academy and the continued exploration of building an indoor facility.

“We will continue to invest in our youth cricketers, male and female… One of the major projects that we will have started in the first quarter in 2017 is a national cricket academy. That academy will host 20 players from the age of 9 to 19…

“We are going to explore to have our own indoor facility… We have started to put some funds aside to erect batting cages around the country,” Shallow enunciated.

The SVGCA president also announced that efforts will be made to document this country’s rich cricket legacy.

“To my knowledge, there is no major documentation of our past cricketers or tournaments’ history… This situation must be addressed,” Shallow assured.

He said that work has been ongoing behind the scenes to make this a reality and is hopeful that the “book” will be ready sometime in 2017.

Last Saturday’s ceremony was also addressed by Dougal James of the National Lotteries Authority, Nelson Hillocks – director of Physical Education and Sports, with former Trinidad and Tobago and West Indies cricket captain Daren Ganga the keynote speaker.

The ceremony and gala dinner were held under the theme: “Cricket – More than a Recreational Sport”.(RT)