The successful PowerGen cricket club has formed a three-way partnership with Barbadian club Pinelands and Canadian club Brampton Masters. This arrangement, the brain-child of Chaitram Ramjitsingh, PowerGen's president, was recently cemented in Barbados. Representing PowerGen was Tariq Khan an engineer at PowerGen, while member of Parliament for Pinelands and president of the club, Hamilton Lashley, was on hand to sign off for his club while manager of the Canadian national team John Bhujan, who played for the Brampton Masters, represented them at the signing. At a press conference at the Dover Beach Hotel, the representatives of all three parties explained the benefits of such a partnership. "We want to give those community-based teams that have hidden talent the necessary exposure at the regional and international cricketing stage," said Lashley. "We just can't continue going through the associations, like the BCL (Barbados Cricket League) or BCA (Barbados Cricket Association) because if you are not within that particular box, then there is no opportunity for you. "And that's why we are here, to forge serious links at this level so people don't fall through the cracks," he added. And the Pine has already begun to reap the benefits of that union, with young cricketers Damien Davis and Rachad Forde recently leaving to come to Trinidad to play for PowerGen. This was after PowerGen had outfitted the team with gear while providing technical assistance to spur Pinelands to a second-place showing in their respective BCL competition last season.
But the academy looked to further enhance its standing after realising that PowerGen already had a similar partnership in place with a semi-professional Canadian cricket team. "In our league, every club brings in overseas talent and we're always scouting for good young talent and I think Pinelands can offer us some hidden talent," said Brampton's sports director Bhujan. Along with the exchange of players and allotment of gear, Pinelands are also expected to send a Special Olympics team to PowerGen's special sports day later this year.
Both Brampton and PowerGen will be fielding teams in this June's Regional Bring Six and Come six-a-side, six-over cricket tournament in the Pine. Khan, who is the son of manager of the national cricket team Omar Khan said: "We at PowerGen welcome this arrangement because we see cricket as being the winner at the end of the day. The players now have more opportunities to travel and develop their game and are happy about this. "We at PowerGen always look to develop our players in a holistic way and this avenue would allow our players to develop not only their cricket skills but also develop good attributes as human beings as well.