Hero’s welcome for Tobagonian cricketer By STEPHON NICHOLAS and WALTER ALIBEY Monday, November 9 2009
TOBAGONIAN Navin Stewart will receive a hero’s welcome when he returns home today after a superb performance with the national cricket team at the Airtel Twenty20 Champions League in India.
The lone Tobagonian on the national team will receive a guard of honour by members of his team, Cavaliers Cricket Club, at the Crown Point International Airport.
Stewart played three matches in the inaugural competition leading up to the final but will be remembered for his swashbuckling innings against the Diamond Eagles in League “A”.
He scored 33 runs from 11 balls, blasting three boundaries and three sixes.
Stewart’s power-hitting as well as his usefulness with the ball ensured that he retained his place in the team for the semi-final and the final where Trinidad and Tobago lost to Australian team New South Wales Blues by 41 runs.
The talented all-rounder was also picked for the national team which retained their crown at the WICB Regional One-day Tournament in Guyana on Thursday.
Stewart will be greeted today at the airport by his mother Ivy Stewart, Claudia Groome Duke, Secretary for Education, Youth and Sport and members of the cricket fraternity.
There will then be a motorcade from the airport to his hometown Betsy Hope, Roxborough. Other members of the national team will accompany Stewart to his hometown for the celebrations to begin.
Stewart and his entourage will visit the Ebenezer Methodist School and Roxborough Secondary School.
The Tobago cricket hero has been invited by the First Citizens Bank to open the first account at the new branch in Roxborough.
The all-rounder will also pay a courtesy call to Orville London, Chief Secretary of Tobago House of Assembly.
On Saturday, Stewart was among the national team honoured by President George Maxwell Richards and his wife Dr jean ramjohn- Richards at president’s house in St Ann’s.
President Richards likened the performance of the Daren Ganga-led national cricket team at the Airtel Twenty/20 Champion’s League in India to that of the “Glory Days” of West Indies cricket.
At a ceremony to congratulate the team for their successes at the Champion’s League and recently in Guyana where the TT cricketers copped the Regional President’s Cup One-Day title, President Richards reminded the cricketers that they received the support of TT and the entire Caribbean.
President Richards told the cricketers, who were there with their wives and spouses, that they lifted the spirits of, not only Trinidad and Tobago, but also the other regional territories.
With the sport being considered the major integrating tool in the region the performance of the team, according to President Richards, was indicative of the hunger by the fans to rally around a team with the passion, unity consistency, character and flair that West Indies cricket was once known for. The TT Head of State is now hoping that TT’s performance will inspire the regional team to give similar performances.
The function on Saturday was attended also by new president of the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB) Azim Bassarath.
