 Switching to cricket on the Tuesday edition of the Sportsmax Zone, Trinidad and Tobago's top cricketers were presented with awards for their exploits in 2023 at a ceremony held at the Centrepoint Mall in Chaguanis on Saturday. This was the TTCB's first awards ceremony in six years. West Indies wicketkeeper batsman Nicholas Puran, who celebrated his 28th birthday on Monday, walked away with the top award, International Cricketer of the Year. Puran averages 70 in one day internationals and 35.20 in T20s this year and was part of the Trinbego nightriders team that finished runners-up in the Caribbean Premier League, brought to you by Republic Bank. Meanwhile, Darren Bravo was named national cricketer of the year, having scored 446 runs in five matches for Trinidad and Tobago Red Force in the West Indies four-day championship. Bravo averaged 55.75 runs per innings. During his remarks, cricket West Indies president Dr Kishore Shalo said his board will adopt some of the TTCB's cricketing models and addressed the possible major earning potential of hosting the ICC T20 World Cup scheduled for 2024. From a CWI perspective, cricket West Indies, we are certainly going to try and adapt and expand on that model that the TTCB has been enjoying and employing over the years, particularly for women's cricket, even for the under-13 program and they have a vibrant under-19 and even there have been leaders trying to advocate for under-23 program in the region. It's no secret that next year is going to be the biggest year in the history of West Indies cricket and why is that? Because we are going to have the opportunity to stage the biggest cricket world cup ever. For the first time, we are going to have 20 teams in our cricket global event and all 20 teams are going to base in the Caribbean at some stage. Of course, we are co-hosting with the USA but majority of the games, a significant majority of the games are going to be hosted right here in the Caribbean and of course here in Trinidad and Tobago as well and the opportunities that we are going to unlock through this world cup is tremendous. In doubt, the last world cup hosted in Australia, similar to the T20 World Cup, they were able to generate some 365 million US dollars and that is the potential that exists for us to share in this part of the globe. Additionally, over 106 countries play cricket globally of course and they're estimated to be one billion cricket lovers and followers of the game and we are going to have millions viewing the Caribbean. Yeah, Cricket West Indies President Dr. Kishor Shalo, Sports Minister Shemfa Kojo in her speech pledged her continued support for cricket in Trinidad and Tobago. When I entered or assumed duties as Minister of Sport in 2018, he had opened his arms and reached out and expressed how passionate he is about utilizing cricket or sport as a way of transforming lives and creating opportunities for young people and I said, I don't, I could never ever, no matter how experienced or inexperienced a club may be once you're working with young people, I am right on board whether it's cricket, whether it's football, badminton, because for me it is more than sports. It's about developing people, it's about providing opportunities for young people to develop themselves personally and professionally. It's helping our youngsters to utilize their time positively. It's about nation building and if anything else couldn't, we know that sport can. Yeah, Shemfa Kojo there, Minister of Sport in Trinidad and Tobago. Now Cricket West Indies Vice President, as in Bazarath, he was awarded the Administrator of the year of course. He is President of the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board and he joins us on the show. Good afternoon and welcome Mr Bazarath. How are you doing? Good afternoon and good afternoon to all your viewers. Well, I'm doing quite well. Congratulations on being named Administrator of the year first of all. Thank you. Thank you very much. Explain to me exactly how it works. I must admit that when I saw it I thought to myself, well, it's a Trinidad and Tobago cricket board award ceremony and the President has been named Administrator of the year. Yes, originally when the decision was made by the Executive I declined to accept the offer and what happened is that I stepped out of the meeting. I called while the meeting was going on and on my return back to the meeting the other Executive members insist that I accept the award and then after much deliberations I agreed to accept the award but really and truly I think that the award should have been, you know, just given to somebody else who would have served in different capacities but since the Executive have made that decision, it was 10 members, the Executive of the Board consists of 11 people. 10 of the members said that they are not going to change the decision and they went ahead. So I had no choice but to accept the decision of the Executive. Also we must also recognize that this is the first presentation of awards function in six years and it's maybe because of all the problems that we went through and the plans and programs that we, well, as a matter of fact they had said that the Speaker who did the introduction and so on he had indicated that because of the plans and programs that we had done post COVID to ensure that the game returned back to normalcy a lot of it and the programs that was my idea what to do and so on. So maybe they felt that because of that that I was I should have received the award. Right and as them as we're saying congratulations also congratulations for winning the hummingbird gold medal because we know back in Trinidad and Tobago what an honor it is to be to be bestowed with such a high award. So congratulations for that. Talk to me now about some of the athletes that received awards and just the importance of recognizing the achievements of young cricketers. Yeah thank you very much Maria. Of course it is very important that at the end of any season and one of my mantra was that we must show appreciation to the young cricketers of our nation and every weekend cricketers of our country will left their home very early in the morning because the the board itself is responsible for the 24 top clubs in the country the top tier competition in the in the country which is called the Premiership Division one and two. So every weekend the players will leave their home and Sunday's and go out in different communities across Trinidad and the Premiership one consists of eight clubs and those clubs are spread all over Trinidad Premiership there is north and south so the the traveling will be smaller less miles they will have to travel. So we think it is very important for the sacrifices that these players will have made over six months that we should recognize them and it is traditionally what the Trinidad and Tobago cricket board has done over the years as I said earlier you know we did not have a function since 2017 that was because of funding financial constraints we could not have a function but of course after the COVID 2020 2021 or 2022 we could not gather to host any function. So we think it was very important that this year as soon as we got the okay we think that it was right to start planning for our presentation function again and that was done. It was a function that was very well attended a gala event you know nearly over 300 people attended the function and we were graced with the presence of our Minister of Sport and Community Development in Trinidad and Tobago the Honorable Member of Parliament for Tobago West Mesham Fakujo and also we were graced with the presence of the President of cricket best in these Dr. Kishu Shalo. Yeah really really good for the men now my question when are the women getting their awards? Well we walk in conjunction with the women the women had already had their presentation of awards function as you are aware I think at the end of the season they would have gotten their their prices on the last day of the tournament. What happened is that in Trinidad and Tobago there is an association that is responsible for administering the women's cricket and they had their presentation already. We have already had discussion with the women because a number of people had asked I will not aware that the women clubs and players were already given their prices that for next year we are going to merge both women and men for one presentation in 2020. Yeah I think the women would really love that because they'll give them the opportunity of course to mix with the male players rub shoulders you know have conversations with the male players and just feel a part of everything. So that aside now how has the job been Vice President of CWI? Well there was work to be done it's a bit easy lots of meetings and so on so work has been going on and we are trying to do our best to ensure that you know we are doing our best to try to get the best of the top. All right Asim you've been president for five terms now and Trinidad and Tobago has been known for having very strong cricket leaders I remember the years of Alau Luqwai's governance. There was a point in one of the cycles of West Indies cricket presidency that your name came up as a possible candidate for the presidential role. Is that something you look at at any time? I'm very surprised to hear that my name ever came up It was it was in the grape vines it was never official so that's why I'm putting it to you. Well I wasn't aware of that and I don't think that at this stage I will be thinking about presidential CWI. But I'll talk to us quickly then about your reign as the TNT cricket boss because five terms is a long time and you know ever so often we hear sporting administrate shuns discuss the issue of term limits and so on how satisfied are you with your reign and how much longer might you go? Well I'm very satisfied with my reign and I really it's a good thing you remind me it's five terms I couldn't even remember it's five terms but I looked at that I am there for a long while. Recently in 2021 there was some changes to our constitution and our governance in Trinidad and Tobago here. We had introduced we have introduced term limits for presidents now two terms no no one can serve from 2021 no one can serve more than two four-year term in office as president. So I will have one more term after this complete in 2025 and it is my intent to complete my two term limits. Yeah okay and what's your overall view on term limits because I've had many discussions with sporting presidents and administrators and there are varying views there are times people feel that because of the critical mass and some of the smaller population within the Caribbean that you have really high quality presidents and administrators who aren't easily replaced. What's your overall view on term limits not just with cricket but as a sporting boss? I think after a period of time people get fed up of you just like me there are people in Trinidad of course who maybe feel that I should go but I am after you know deliberation and hearing from different quarters I am a strong advocate now of term limits. We must be able to groom someone to take over at some time and of course the organization or the institution that you must be able to sort of try to get as much as possible from those people who would have served and you know gain on their experience put them in different capacities to serve so that the organization will not lose them not necessarily they have to serve at the helm but of course at different levels they can serve where people can draw the you know the some resources and draw the experience that they would have gained over the period of time that they have served at the helm of the organization. Yeah Asim Mariah asked you just now about your CWI vice presidency role and I want to go there with this discussion because Cricket West Indies has struggled for well over a decade now to resuscitate cricket in in the Caribbean and I heard Dr. Kishore Shalo heaping praises on you as a TNT cricket boss and especially in the women's game the the model of development that you've had for your women cricketers TNT have produced some of the most outstanding cricketers on the women's team in the past couple of decades. Tell the Caribbean fans watching us now something positive about the future of West Indies cricket because I think a lot of fans in the region are losing hope. Well first of all Dr. Shalo heaping praises on the TNT cricket board not specifically as a master okay you could board and the executive would have worked hard to put programs in place what happened is that in the Caribbean we must be able to get all territories every single territory is in the Caribbean in one page and we must start the overdevelopment programs at a very early age. We are fortunate in Trinidad and Tobago to have a very strong primary schools cricket league and the secondary schools cricket league where we have hundreds of schools participating in these cricket leagues in Trinidad and then the Trinidad and Tobago cricket board have on the 13th where we have Interzone on the 13th tournament on the 15th on the 17th on the 19th and we have started a 14 on the 23 tournament on a yearly basis. We feel that if each territory have programs like these we see in the very near future shorter than people think that I believe westernese cricket and you know start the progress of reaching to the top but you cannot on territory or two territories doing it alone. We must engage the other territories and we have strong development and grassroots programs just as we had you know in the in the 90s and early 2000 when we were still competing with the other nations of the world. We maybe wasn't winning on a regular basis but we were competing and I think if we start this very soon we are going to see the results of the development and grassroots programs. Yesterday in our Trinidad and Tobago project presentation by the Honourable Minister of Finance 59 million TT dollars was put aside for community sports in Trinidad and Tobago and I think that is a huge investment. I think it is something that will reap rich dividends in the not too distant future in Trinidad and of course we must appeal to our poor Caribbean governments that you know we must invest in sports. And I think if that is done you know we are going to see the results very soon. One quick comment as you glorify the youth programs in Trinidad and Tobago under 13s under 15s and so on. Earlier this summer I remember when you're under 19 team was going across to play in the CWIU 19 tournament. You had suggested that is the best under 19 team in the history of Trinidad and Tobago's cricket and you were expecting a lot from them and they didn't do well. What went wrong. Well we had a post mortem recently with the manager and coach and we think that the players faltered. There is a lot have to be done with the mental state of the players and the reason why I said I said that it was the best prepared team but something that was left out and people feel that I said it was the best team but maybe I maybe said it was the best team too but that team was the most and was best prepared in every facet of the game. There was a lot of money that was spent in the preparation of the team and we felt when the team left that they will have done very well. There is quite a few outstanding cricketers in that team who really did not stand up or perform as was expected. Right and Azim we have something to plan. We have a big world cup coming up and Trinidad and Tobago will be a part of it. How much work do we have to do to get ready for that big event. Well the LOC's have to be have to be formalized and I think that there is still some work to be done at the Baranara Stadium in terms of construction which was approved already. I must commend the people at the Baranara Stadium for taking the initiative and move as fast as possible and I think it is the extension of the media center. They are going to do some work on the northern side where the media center is. Other than that you know the outfield is in pristine condition as we speak. Cricket will be played there for Super 50 and maybe the regional the regional 4A games there and at the Queensborough. And I think our facility is in excellent shape to host the World Cup. It is about seven months away seven eight months away and I'm quite confident that when the excursion is released and the schedule is released and so on Trinidad will be well they have already identified Trinidad as a host venue. Yes. That you know all work will be will be put in place there and show that that we do a good job in hosting part of the World Cup. All right Azim all I want to thank you so much as always it's it's a pleasure chatting with you here on the Sportsmax. So you keep up the good work and we'll connect when next I come to Trinidad. Thanks very much. I'm looking forward to it. Take care. All right let's take a quick break. We'll be right back on the Sportsmax zone.