By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

IT was fitting that Team Guyana would claim their first NAGICO T20 tournament title in a year that the country celebrates its 50th Golden Jubilee of Independence.

Guyana finally defeated three-time defending champion Team Bahamas in the tournament finale yesterday at Haynes Oval, West Bay Street.

Guyana batted first and scored a record setting 255 runs in 20 overs, led by Jaggernsugh Jagroo who surpassed the century mark on his own with 114.

The Bahamas, despite a valiant effort, managed 183 runs in 16 overs, led by Jonathan Barry and Rudolph Fox, before the match was called due to darkness.

Albert Peters, team captain for Guyana, accepted the cash prizes of $1,800 for his side as they also won with miniature trophies and the NAGICO T20 championship trophy for their effort.

“To finally get this done it feels awesome,” he said “We played and lost to the Bahamas in a thriller before but this time we came out strong and they just couldn’t handle it.”

The Bahamas earned $1,000 with their medals for second and for third place, Jamaica collected $700 with their medals.

Held under the auspices of the Bahamas Cricket Association, the two-day tournament comprised of four teams, featuring the locally based players that formed the Bahamas, Guyana, Jamaica and the Rest of the World – which was represented by six countries.

On day one, Guyana defeated The Rest Of The World, while the Bahamas topped Jamaica.

Team Bahamas manager Hesketh Dean said the team fell short in several areas of play, preventing their bid for a fourth consecutive tournament title.

“I thought that our guys, we didn’t play to our potential and our standard so it wasn’t as well as we would have liked to play,” he said. “You don’t want to allow a team to put up that type of score but even so, that score of 250 we are capable of catching that, but we had some unfortunate plays with our two opening batters and it was difficult to recover.”

Team Bahamas captain Greg Taylor Jr said: “Maybe next year. We had some quality matches. Guyana did a good job scoring runs and they deserve it this year.”

Bahamas Cricket Association President,  Greg Taylor Sr, said the sponsorship from NAGICO has provided a tremendous lift to the local growth of the sport.

“NAGICO has been an excellent corporate citizen since coming to the Bahamas three years ago,” he said. “I would like to truly and sincerely thank Mr Vibert Williams who has confidence in the Bahamas Cricket Association to host such a venture year after year.”

Williams, managing director for NAGICO Bahamas, said his organisation is known as a cricketing company with the majority of its senior managers having played some form of the sport. They are best known for their sponsorship of the NAGICO Super 60 Tournament that is played in Trinidad & Tobago.

At the closing ceremony he pledged his company’s support for 2017.

“It has been a pleasure the last few years and we hope to host again next year, same time, same place and I want it to be bigger and better, but to do that we need all of your support. “

Williams said when he came to the Bahamas to head the company in 2012, he was eager to get NAGICO deeply involved in the sponsorship of cricket and they were quite pleased with the previous initiatives.

“NAGICO puts a tremendous amount of money into cricket and before cricket because one of the main reasons is we see it as an avenue where people can get together and expend some energy, build some camaraderie and a good corporate event for us to get involved in,” Williams said.