Chief Sec­re­tary of the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) An­cil Den­nis says that he is go­ing to use crick­et and sports to show the world what To­ba­go has to of­fer.

He made the state­ment dur­ing a press con­fer­ence held at the Of­fice of the Chief Sec­re­tary at Sang­sters Hill in Scar­bor­ough, To­ba­go on Fri­day. With West In­dies play­ers Ke­iron Pol­lard and Dwayne Bra­vo as well as pres­i­dent of the To­ba­go Crick­et As­so­ci­a­tion (TCA) Ker­win John in at­ten­dance, Den­nis made it clear that he knows the val­ue of sport and in­tends to use it.

He said, "Sport is a great ve­hi­cle when it comes to mar­ket­ing a des­ti­na­tion and I am go­ing to use this tool to achieve what we want to do here in To­ba­go. We have in­vit­ed Pol­lard and Bra­vo as great crick­eters to come to the Is­land and to as­sist us in pro­mot­ing the des­ti­na­tion. We are hap­py that they have de­cid­ed to come here and we are look­ing for­ward to great per­for­mances and en­ter­tain­ment from them this

evening at the All-Star game."

Pol­lard and Bra­vo to­geth­er with Dar­ren Bra­vo and Nico­las Pooran flew in to take part in an ex­hi­bi­tion match ahead of the fi­nal of the Chief Sec­re­tary Bago T10 Crick­et tour­na­ment.

Pol­lard said he was hap­py to be on the Is­land and hopes that the game can catch on even more.

He said, "As West In­dies and Trin­ba­go Knight Rid­ers (TKR) cap­tain, I am hap­py to be here to do my part to as­sist in the de­vel­op­ment of the game. We are look­ing for­ward to play­ing this evening and re­al­ly hap­py with this ini­tia­tive."

Bra­vo said that it is the right move to have the tour­na­ment. "The Chief Sec­re­tary in our dis­cus­sion this morn­ing said that he will make sure this tour­na­ment con­tin­ues even if he is not in pow­er. This is a great idea and it must con­tin­ue as it would not on­ly help in the de­vel­op­ment of the crick­eters but al­so push the Is­land in terms of what it has to of­fer. To­ba­go is a great place and hav­ing tour­na­ments like this would on­ly help in the tourism as­pect of To­ba­go."

John was over­joyed by the ar­rival of the West In­dies crick­eters on the Is­land say­ing: "It was too long that these guys didn't come to To­ba­go and I am hap­py that I had a hand in hav­ing them come here to play crick­et. I must say a heart­felt thank you to Chief Sec­re­tary Den­nis be­cause when we came with the idea he im­me­di­ate­ly came on board and made it hap­pen. We want to en­sure that To­ba­go crick­et goes to the next lev­el and tour­na­ment like these will on­ly prove to do that."

The tour­na­ment which con­clud­ed on Fri­day night fea­tured four fran­chis­es – Buc­coo Divers, Rain­for­est Rangers, Ft King George Gun­ners and the Lit­tle To­ba­go Is­landers.

The teams on­ly fea­tured To­ba­go play­ers. Jahron Al­fred would cap­tain Buc­coo, for­mer TT Red Force play­er Navin Stew­art would lead the Rain­for­est out­fit, West In­dies Un­der-19 play­er Joshua James was at the helm for Ft King George and Leron Leza­ma led Lit­tle To­ba­go.

The teams bat­tled for the first prize of $20,000.

The ex­hi­bi­tion match which set the stage for the grand fi­nale be­tween the Chief Sec­re­tary XI and an All-Star team fea­tured play­ers from the two teams that did not qual­i­fy for the fi­nal. The Chief Sec­re­tary XI will in­clude Kieron Pol­lard, Dwayne Bra­vo, Dar­ren Bra­vo, Nicholas Pooran, John and Chief Sec­re­tary An­cil Den­nis, who would cap­tain the team.