Barataria Ball Play­ers (BBP) Sports and Cul­tur­al Club will cel­e­brate their 50-year an­niver­sary with a week-long host of ac­tiv­i­ties be­gin­ning Tues­day (Feb­ru­ary 6) and end­ing on Feb­ru­ary 13 (Car­ni­val Tues­day).

A high­light of the ac­tiv­i­ties to be host­ed by the club's alum­ni which in­cludes for­mer na­tion­al foot­ball play­ers Mar­vin Faustin, Mau­rice Al­ibey, and Den­nis Lawrence, all un­der the guid­ance of coach Ever­ald "Gal­ly" Cum­mings, will be a five-team foot­ball fi­es­ta at the Barataria Crick­et Oval, Sixth Av­enue, Barataria on Wednes­day (Feb­ru­ary 7) from 4 pm.

In ad­di­tion, Arnold Dwari­ka, Cur­tis Ce­les­tine, Au­r­tis Whit­ley, Bri­an James, Garfield De Sil­va, Ron­nie Charles, Col­in Rocke, An­tho­ny Del Peche, Ross Rus­sell and Wayne Al­fred are among past play­ers for Barataria Ball Play­ers to have don the na­tion­al se­nior team colours while Justin Lat­apy, Leslie Rus­sell Jr, An­tho­ny Mar­shall, De­von Case­man, Kei­th Ser­rette, Bri­an No­ray, Mar­lon Thomas, Ster­ling Fi­garo, Gre­go­ry Tou­s­saint, Bri­an Grif­fith, Ger­rard Mc Cloud and Sher­wyn Besson did like­wise at the na­tion­al youth lev­el.

The tour­na­ment will fea­ture Cana­da-based teams, Just Sweat (Mon­tre­al), and Foot Mix­ers (Toron­to/USA) the lat­ter of which is man­aged by the tour­na­ment's founder Nicholas Her­nan­dez, and the lo­cal trio of Mas­ters, Chal­lengers, and Barataria Ball Play­ers.

Ac­cord­ing to Ronald Greenidge, a past play­er at BBP who went on to rep­re­sent Cana­da at the na­tion­al youth (Un­der-17) crick­et lev­el the week of ac­tiv­i­ties will be opened to all those who have been af­fil­i­at­ed to the club past and present as well as the gen­er­al pub­lic.

Greenidge was al­so quick to point out that Barataria Ball Play­ers Sports and Cul­tur­al Club which was found­ed back in 1973 by a group of friends in­clu­sive of Lennox Tou­s­saint, No­ble Kissoon, Fred "Mighty Com­pos­er" Mitchell, Dun­more Burke, Hamil­ton John, and Basil "Bar­ney" Smith, the first coach of the foot­ball team, Christo­pher Au­guste, Earl Cun­ning­ham and Ed­ward George to com­pete in both the Glaver­ston Foot­ball League and Aranguez Foot­ball League, be­fore ven­tur­ing in­to the East Zone com­pe­ti­tion.

Not on­ly did the club com­pete with much suc­cess as a foot­ball out­fit but al­so par­tic­i­pat­ed in net­ball, bas­ket­ball and zon­al crick­et, emerg­ing as North Zone Crick­et Coun­cil cham­pi­ons in the lat­ter with­in re­cent years.

Greenidge was al­so full of praise for Thomas who he said ded­i­cat­ed his life to the up­keep of the play­er crick­et field and helped mould the the crick­et part of the club to what it is to­day.

Up to to­day, the club re­mains one of the on­ly sur­viv­ing clubs among com­mu­ni­ty-based or­gan­i­sa­tions through­out T&T, and more im­por­tant­ly, is the on­ly or­gan­i­sa­tion in the Barataria/San-Juan/Laven­tille and en­vi­rons which par­tic­i­pates in both crick­et and foot­ball at a na­tion­al lev­el.

Among the club's achieve­ments is its par­tic­i­pa­tion in Na­tion­al Foot­ball and Zon­al com­pe­ti­tions for over 42 years, with the high­light be­ing run­ners-up in the Na­tion­al Foot­ball League’s Di­vi­sion FA Cup fi­nal in 1981.

The club has par­tic­i­pat­ed in Na­tion­al and Zon­al crick­et com­pe­ti­tions since 1978, and cur­rent­ly cam­paigns in the Na­tion­al Crick­et Cham­pi­onship Di­vi­sion and has al­so par­tic­i­pat­ed in Na­tion­al Bas­ket­ball North Zone com­pe­ti­tions, in ad­di­tion to es­tab­lish­ing an In­dus­tri­al Foot­ball League in the Barataria com­mu­ni­ty.

En­ter­tain­ing will be pro­vid­ed by VIBE City 105 Ra­dio disc jock­ey, Sen­sa­tion­al Sam­my, him­self a for­mer play­er at Mal­ick Sec­ondary, while food will al­so be pro­vid­ed for sale by Sen­sa­tion­al Sam­my Seafood Plus, and Ma'Sons De­lights.