Barataria Ball Play­ers and Diego Mar­tin Con­querors shared the spoils as the Sports Com­pa­ny of T&T (SporTT) Com­mu­ni­ty Crick­et Pro­gramme (CCP) signed off for 2024 with the West Crick­et Fes­ti­val on Sat­ur­day (De­cem­ber 21) at Diego Mar­tin Sport­ing Com­plex.

The Boys 12-15 cat­e­go­ry be­longed to Barataria, who cruised past home team Diego Mar­tin Con­querors by 38 runs to cap off a com­pet­i­tive and fun day of crick­et in sun­ny Diego Mar­tin. The third-place play­off in the 12-15 age group saw Mu­cu­rapo Fresh Starz se­cure third in the group with a con­vinc­ing nine-wick­et win over Care­nage Mar­lins.

Diego Mar­tin, how­ev­er, re­turned the favour, mak­ing home ad­van­tage count in the 7-11 age group. They clinched the cham­pi­onship in a nail-bit­ing fi­nale against Barataria, suc­cess­ful­ly chas­ing down a mod­est tar­get of 32 with five wick­ets to spare.

In the 7-11 third-place play­off, Mu­cu­rapo Fresh Starz dom­i­nat­ed Care­nage Mar­lins and com­plet­ed a flaw­less run chase.

The fes­ti­val marked the end of SporTT’s CCP West edi­tion. It fol­lowed a vi­brant ten-week pro­gramme that fos­tered crick­et­ing skills, com­mu­ni­ty spir­it, and youth de­vel­op­ment among boys and girls aged 7-15.

The fes­ti­val was filled with thrilling match­es, ca­ma­raderie, and cel­e­bra­tion, bring­ing the com­mu­ni­ties to­geth­er to cel­e­brate not just crick­et­ing tal­ent but al­so val­ues like team­work, dis­ci­pline, and per­se­ver­ance in­stilled through the CCP. The day al­so fea­tured live­ly com­mu­ni­ty en­gage­ment, healthy lifestyle pro­mo­tion, and en­thu­si­as­tic sup­port from par­ents, coach­es, and of­fi­cials.

Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Diego Mar­tin Cen­tral, Symon de No­bri­ga, was among the of­fi­cials who en­joyed the sun­shine and com­pet­i­tive play. He said pro­grammes like CCP are valu­able to this coun­try's com­mu­ni­ties.

"I think it is im­por­tant that we take the op­por­tu­ni­ties that are be­ing giv­en here through the Min­istry of Sport and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment and SporTT to hone our skills, and if that means crick­et can be a ca­reer, then that would be a great achieve­ment," De No­bri­ga said.

SporTT chair­man Lar­ry Ro­many is proud of what the pro­gramme has ac­com­plished.

"These chil­dren are not on­ly get­ting an ed­u­ca­tion in phys­i­cal skills but al­so in es­sen­tial life skills and val­ues like team­work, sports­man­ship and dis­ci­pline, as well as de­vel­op­ing friend­ship and con­nec­tion," Ro­many said as he wel­comed the teams at the event.

SporTT, in a re­lease, com­mend­ed all par­tic­i­pants for their ded­i­ca­tion and en­thu­si­asm through­out the ten-week pro­gramme and con­grat­u­lat­ed the Diego Mar­tin Con­querors and Barataria Ball Play­ers on their cham­pi­onship vic­to­ries.

HO­N­OUR ROLL

7-11 Age Group

1 Diego Mar­tin Con­querors

2 Barataria Ball Play­ers

3 Mu­cu­rapo Fresh Stars

4 Care­nage Mar­lins

12-15 Age Group

1 Barataria Ball Play­ers

2 Diego Mar­tin Con­querors

3 Mu­cu­rapo Fresh Starz

4 Care­nage Mar­lins

Most Dis­ci­plined Team - Diego Mar­tin Con­querors

IN­DI­VID­UAL AWARDS

7-11 Age Group

Care­nage Mar­lins

Best Bat­ter: Mar­quice McMil­lian

Best Bowler: Latvia Babb

Best Field­er: Des­tiny Noel

Mu­cu­rapo Fresh Starz

Best Bat­ter: Ben­i­to Christo­pher

Best Bowler: Kelvin Thomas

Best Field­er: Vi­talia Top­pin

Diego Mar­tin Con­querors

Best Bat­ter: Im­ran Ali

Best Bowler: Ji­mall Jef­fers

Best Field­er: Bri­an Gar­cia

Barataria Ball Play­ers

Best Bat­ter: Lisan­dro Ramkhelawan

Best Bowler: De­vi­ka Thomas

Best Field­er: Jaquan Bra­vo

12-15 Age Group

Care­nage Mar­lins

Best Bat­ter: Malachi Lan­siquot

Best Bowler: Alex Nicholas

Best Field­er: Josi­ah James

Mu­cu­rapo Fresh Starz

Best Bat­ter: Ethan Thomas

Best Bowler: Oba­di­ah Grif­fith

Best Field­er: Zaniyah Dou­glas

Diego Mar­tin Con­querors

Best Bat­ter: Josi­ah Tou­s­saint

Best Bowler: Ezekiel Ro­man

Best Field­er: Aiden Oliv­er

Barataria Ball Play­ers

Best Bat­ter: Devash Thomas

Best Bowler: Hamza Bap­tiste

Best Field­er: Le­an­dro Ramkhelawan