Barbados: Big boost for BCA (28 May 1998)

28 May 1998

Big boost for BCA

The Barbados Nation

SOME $100 000 from Courts, a $47 000 Suzuki Baleno car from Simpson Motors.

Those are the big figures in a record sponsorship deal for the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA).

Yesterday, representatives of Courts Barbados Limited, Simpson Motors and Bubba's Restaurant joined BCA representatives at Simpson's Warrens headquarters to announce the details.

The big league is now called the Courts/Suzuki Division 1 competition while Bubba's is behind Division 2.

Ann Reid, a director of Courts, said her company was very pleased to be associated with the BCA and hope to continue playing a major role in sports development.

Courts has injected some $100 000 over a three-year period, plus the chance for a cricketer chosen as Player-Of-The-Series at the end of every round of games. The winners can pick their prizes from a variety of Courts products.

Debbie Simpson, sales manager of Simpson Motors, revealed that a 1999 fully loaded Baleno was at stake for the champion club at the end of the season.

"We are happy to be involved on a local level," Simpson said, as she recalled Suzuki's involvement in the 1995 Australia/West Indies series.

Habib Elias, the proprietor of Bubba's Sports Bar, was also excited by the opportunity to be playing a part in local cricket. In addition to the Division 2 sponsorship, Bubba's is also providing $5 000 to the season's Most Valuable Player in Division 1 for the next three years.

The Sports Bar also is offering 182 free lunches for every Man-Of-The-Match chosen and a friend during the domestic season.

BCA president Tony Marshall thanked the sponsors involved and said that it was a bright and happy day for local cricket.

It was a different Marshall who had relayed the grim news to clubs two weeks before the season that no sponsorship would mean no prize money.

Many club representatives left that meeting disappointed as reported by the WEEKEND NATION of May 15.

But the veil of uncertainty was lifted when, just two days before the season began, the BCA announced sponsorship had been secured.

Speaking at a Press conference yesterday Marshall said that the BCA had been working on obtaining corporate backing for the last year.

He further stated that the BCA did not "lose" Mount Gay as a sponsor, but they (BCA) were notified a year in advance that the sponsorship would have been discontinued in 1995.

"I was surprised to hear reports that the BCA had done little to find sponsorship," he said.

The president also revealed that the association was seeking to obtain a public relations executive or agency to handle the media and stop some of the speculation and confusion that had occurred.

He then went on to state that there was only one official spokesman for the BCA and that was the president or someone approved by the BCA to speak in an official capacity.

Source :: The Barbados Nation (https://www.nationnews.com/)