Cariah, Da Silva take top Parkites awards

CRICKETERS Yannic Cariah and Joshua Da Silva took home the Senior and Junior Sport Personality awards respectively, as the Queen’s Park Cricket Club staged its annual club dinner and awards presentation on Friday.

The event took place at the Century Ballroom, Queen’s Park Oval, St Clair.

The 26-year-old Cariah won the top prize among the senior sports nominees, ahead of ex-national footballer Yohance Marshall, national hockey player Jordan Reynos and squash player Alexandria Yearwood.

During the 2018 season, Cariah scored two hundreds and three half-centuries, in his tally of 544 runs at an average of 60.0. He also captured 18 wickets at an average of 16.5.

For the TT Red Force team, Cariah amassed 271 runs and earned spots in the West Indies A team against the visiting Sri Lanka in June, and the West Indies B team during the Regional Super50 Cup in October.

“I’m a bit surprised,” said Cariah. “(On Friday) I got my invitation and I wasn’t expecting it. I had a good season with the club and hopefully better seasons to come.”

With the 2018-2019 Regional Four-Day Tournament set to bowl off next month, Cariah said, “I’m looking forward to the Four-Day season. Hopefully I’ll have a great year again and our team will perform better than we did last time (when they placed last) – if not win the tournament, come in the first two.”

Cariah acknowledged that his mental work, particularly at the club level, was crucial to this 2018 success.

The 19-year-old Da Silva, in his first season at the men’s level of the National Cricket League, compiled 679 runs at an average of 40.1. With the gloves, he had 18 dismissals and his form earned him a retainer contract with the Red Force for the 2018-2019 season.

“It’s a great honour (for) all the hard work that I’ve put in. It’s great to be recognised,” said Da Silva.

Looking ahead to the forthcoming season, Da Silva plans to “work even harder and perform to the best of my ability.”

The other nominee in the junior sports category was footballer Andrew de Gannes.

Da Silva admitted, “(de Gannes) had a lot of great accomplishments. It was a good fight but I was just happy to come out as the junior sports (personality) of the year.”

Reflecting on his 2018 season, Da Silva noted, “It was probably my best year as a cricketer. I’ve scored the most runs (in my career) this season and, playing at Division One cricket was a great opportunity and a lot of fun.”

Veteran sporting personality Mary Siu Butt was presented with the Kingston Trophy for her work with the club, particularly youth football.