Ker­wyn Sir­ju was named Play­er of the Year as Vic­to­ria Unit­ed Sports Club host­ed its 42nd an­nu­al prize giv­ing func­tion last week­end. All-rounder Sir­ju end­ed the sea­son with 41 wick­ets and 302 runs to take the pres­ti­gious award. Sir­ju was among the five crick­eters of the year which al­so in­clud­ed Shi­va Ram­bar­ran, An­drew Den­nis, na­tion­al youth play­er Em­manuel Lett and for­mer West In­dies and T&T leg spin­ner, Ra­jin­dra Dhan­raj. Ram­bar­ran scored 580 runs at an av­er­age of 45 while Den­nis record­ed 560 runs at an av­er­age of 42 and Lett, in ad­di­tion to earn­ing his na­tion­al and West In­dies youth cap, scored 494 runs. Dhan­raj cap­tured 34 wick­ets at an av­er­age of nine runs per wick­et and scored 312 runs at an av­er­age of 28 runs.

The cer­e­mo­ny al­so took the op­por­tu­ni­ty to give a rous­ing send off to Lett, who was se­lect­ed in the West In­dies U19 squad for the cur­rent quad­ran­gu­lar tour­na­ment in In­dia that al­so fea­tures Un­der-19 sides from Aus­tralia, Sri Lan­ka and the hosts. Dhan­raj who is al­so pres­i­dent of the club said his club's vi­sion was to min­i­mize or erad­i­cate if pos­si­ble crime from the com­mu­ni­ty of Bar­rack­pore by keep­ing the youths en­gaged in sport­ing ac­tiv­i­ties such as crick­et. "We be­lieve that once these youths are prop­er­ly guid­ed they can be­come ex­em­plars to T&T and by ex­ten­sion the West In­dies. This year Vic­to­ria Unit­ed was proud to see our very own Em­manuel Lett se­lect­ed in the West In­dies U19 team," he said.

He added, "Many com­pa­nies fail to recog­nise the im­por­tance of cor­po­rate so­cial re­spon­si­bil­i­ty, even right here in our com­mu­ni­ty. "If com­pa­nies in­vest more in com­mu­ni­ties, this will have big­ger im­pact than cur­few." Vic­to­ria Unit­ed is look­ing for a ti­tle spon­sor next year as well a ground they can call their home. The club al­so has plans to host an an­nu­al kid­dies tour­na­ment and pro­grammes for moth­ers, wives and young fe­males to de­vel­op skills in cours­es like bal­loon dec­o­rat­ing, draperies and can­dle mak­ing through Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment Out­reach Pro­grammes. Among those who at­tend­ed the func­tion were TTCB pres­i­dent Az­im Bas­sarath, Dr Alan Sam­my, Patrick Ram­per­sad, Anil Ka­mal and the fea­ture speak­er, Mi­tra Ma­habir, chair­man of the NL­CB.

Vic­to­ria has been in ex­is­tence for more than 42 years. The Club has pro­duced sev­er­al in­ter­na­tion­al and na­tion­al play­ers such as Randy So­bie, Kevin Gob­in, Ra­jku­mar Ma­hadeo, Daron Bee­ka, Vikash Per­sad, Kavesh Kan­tas­ingh, Em­manuel Lett, Keno Ma­son and Dhan­raj. It has main­tained its po­si­tion in the TTCB Cham­pi­onship Di­vi­sion, a feat no oth­er club in Bar­rack­pore has been able to achieve to date.