Raphael Ali, who produced a season-best of 13 wickets including 7/33 against Glenora Sports Club and scored 89 total runs with a high score of 37 runs, was named the North Zone Cricket Council’s "Cricketer of the Year" at Monday’s prize-giving ceremony at the Barataria Community Centre.
Ali, a standout player from Invincible, scored a total of 134 runs in the Zone’s T20 and 40-over competitions and also took 18 wickets with best figures of seven for 33.
Three other players Khalfani Clarke of Fatima College took 5/29 against Invincible and his teammate Aditya Ramdeen took 5/25 versus Paragon and Johaan Henry of Police returned 5/22. The other players joining Ali on the list of the five "Cricketers of the Year" were a pair of Police players Nicholas Jagmohan and Imran Hosein, followed by Rishi Mannah of Pole 9, who scored 124 in the T20 competition and took four wickets and Sameer Ali of Savannah Boys.
Jagmohan scored 287 runs in all matches, including an unbeaten 118 in the 40-over competition against Glenora Sports Club.
Mannah scored 269 runs and took four wickets, while Hosein scored 263 runs, including 121 not out in the 40-over competition against Invincible in the semi-finals.
Sameer Ali also prided himself on amassing 216 runs and six wickets for Savannah Boys who were joint winners of the T20 competition with Santa Cruz.
Addressing the gathering the Chairman of the North Zone Cricket Council, Winston Sobers pointed out that the North Zone clubs have dwindled over the years. He said, “It's something that bothers me. For a zone with so much history, we are seeing the dying (process) of the sport." Similar statements were later echoed by the North Zone Schools Cricket chairman Rudranath Balwant who said, “There are too few schools playing cricket in the North and we must find out why and we want to fix it”.
Despite the challenges of the Zone, Parasram Singh, the third vice president of the T&T Cricket Board praised the executive for their execution of the season. He commended the executive “you have done well to complete 2 competitions in the same year right after a pandemic”.
Cricket commentator Vidia Ramphal, who delivered the feature address, reminded the audience that North Zone alone has produced more Test cricketers than some of the islands in the Caribbean. He then challenged the executive to return the zone to its rightful place at the “top of the tree”.
The zone is expected to reintroduce the three-day format for the 2023 season, as well as the promotion-demotion arrangement that has been suspended for the 2022 season.