All­rounder Aaron Ban­warie was ad­judged “Crick­eter of the Year” when the Pres­i­dent’s As­so­ciates Sports Club held their an­nu­al awards func­tion at the St Mary’s Gov­ern­ment School in Moru­ga on Sun­day.

Ban­warie emerged the top crick­eter with 38 wick­ets and 161 runs for the 2018 sea­son as Pres­i­dent’s As­so­ciates cap­tured the Cham­pi­onship Di­vi­sion ti­tle in the South East Zon­al Coun­cil com­pe­ti­tion.

The tal­ent­ed young­ster al­so snatched two five-wick­et hauls (six for 13, and five for 25 against Tris­tar and Poole re­spec­tive­ly) and al­so im­pressed with the best bowl­ing av­er­age of 10.23 runs per wick­et.

Ban­warie head­ed the pres­ti­gious list of the “Five Crick­eters of the Year” which al­so in­clud­ed Prem­c­hand Ram­roop, Evans Metoo, Wasim Ali and Faoud Bas­sarath.

Ram­roop had the ho­n­our of emerg­ing the on­ly cen­tu­ri­on for Pres­i­dent’s As­so­ciates in the 2018 crick­et sea­son with a fine knock of 129 runs against Poole Unit­ed, and he al­so fin­ished with the best ag­gre­gate of 304 runs.

Ho­n­ours were al­so heaped on Aaron Sankar who was award­ed as the “Most Promis­ing Play­er” while Daawu­ud Mo­hammed was named the “Most Im­proved” in the ho­n­our roll.

Sen­a­tor Ani­ta Haynes was the fea­tured speak­er at the awards func­tion which al­so had in at­ten­dance Dud­nath Ramkessoon, Op­er­a­tions Man­ag­er of the T&T Crick­et Board (TTCB) and Paras­ram Singh, pres­i­dent of the T&T Um­pires and Scor­ers’ Coun­cil.

Al­so bring­ing greet­ings at the event were Princes Town Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion coun­cil­lors Nel­lo Ramd­han (St Julien/Princes­Town North) and Rafi Mo­hammed (Fifth Com­pa­ny).

Sen­a­tor Haynes said that she was in­spired to lis­ten to the sec­re­tary of the club, Ash­ley Ram­samooj give an ac­count of the club’s de­vel­op­ment and their ef­fort in achiev­ing ex­cep­tion­al re­sults in a short time.

“It shows that com­mu­ni­ties can build a na­tion. Pol­i­cy­mak­ers must rec­og­nize the work of peo­ple in the com­mu­ni­ties like the Pres­i­dent’s As­so­ciates who show pas­sion and com­mit­ment in their role of mak­ing a con­tri­bu­tion,” said Sen­a­tor Haynes.

She said she was im­pressed with the lev­el of sup­port the team at­tracts at its match­es, one of which she was for­tu­nate to at­tend ear­li­er in the sea­son at their home ground in San­cho Vil­lage.

The young politi­cian promised that next sea­son she is go­ing to pro­vide spe­cial awards to the most ac­tive sup­port­ers of Pres­i­dent’s As­so­ciates and hoped that the St Mary’s com­mu­ni­ty con­tin­ues to pro­vide a base for the suc­cess of their crick­et team.

Sen­a­tor Haynes said that as she trav­els through­out the na­tion, she gets a first-hand ac­count of the lev­el of suf­fer­ing and mis­ery that peo­ple ex­pe­ri­ence in their dai­ly lives, and it was re­fresh­ing for her to hear of the good news that comes out of Moru­ga.

She al­so re­marked on the note-wor­thy pre­sen­ta­tion of an award to Sa­jaana Bhag­wat who had the dis­tinc­tion of be­ing the high­est placed stu­dent of St Mary’s Vil­lage in the SEA Ex­ams.

“The pair­ing of aca­d­e­mics and sport is a great mo­ti­vat­ing as­pect of the Pres­i­dent’s As­so­ciates of which every­one should be proud,” she said.

Among those re­ceiv­ing recog­ni­tion awards was top re­gion­al um­pire Za­hid Bas­sarath, a res­i­dent of St Mary’s Vil­lage who has been de­scribed as be­ing on the verge of be­ing called up for in­ter­na­tion­al du­ty in the near fu­ture.

HO­N­OUR ROLL

Crick­eter of the Year: Aaron Ban­warie

Five Crick­eters of the Year: Prem­c­hand Ram­roop (304 runs at 30.4 per inns); Evans Metoo (31 wk­ts. At 11.8 per wkt), Wasim Ali (192 runs st 27.4 per inns), Faoud Bas­sarath (300 runs at 60 runs per inns/28 wk­ts at 12.82 per wkt), Aaron Ban­warie (38 wk­ts at 10.23 per wkt/10)

Most wick­ets: Aaron Ban­warie (38 wk­ts)

Best bowl­ing in an in­nings: Aaron Ban­warie (6 for 13 vs Tris­tar)

Best bowl­ing av­er­age: Aaron Ban­warie (10.23 per wkt)

Most promis­ing play­er: Aaron Sankar

Most im­proved play­er: Daawu­ud Mo­hammed

Five wick­ets in an in­nings: Aaron Ban­warie (6 for 13 vs Tris­tar, 5 for 25 vs Poole); Evans Metoo (6 for 27 vs Tris­tar, 5 for 20 vs Table­land); Wasim Ali (5 for 22 vs San­ta Maria)

Cen­tu­ri­on: Prem­c­hand Ram­roop (129 vs Poole Unit­ed)

Most runs: Prem­c­hand Ram­roop (304 runs)

Best Bat­ting Av­er­age: Foaud Bas­sarath (60 runs per inns)

High­est In­di­vid­ual Score: Prem­c­hand Ram­roop (120 runs)

Club Mem­bers of the Year: Ash­ley Ram­samooj, Evan­ge­lene Bas­sarat

Spe­cial awards: Sa­jaana Bhag­wat (First placed in St Mary’s Com­mu­ni­ty in SEA Ex­am), Za­hid Bas­sarath (Lead­ing Re­gion­al Um­pire)