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PowerGen Fuelling Dreams for 25 Years
PowerGen continues to energise careers in cricket
From chasing boundaries with classmates on the fields of Trinidad and Tobago to scoring centuries with and against the top teams in the world on almost every continent, the PowerGen Secondary Schools Cricket League (SCCL) has helped unearth the potential and realise the dreams of many of our national players over the past quarter century.
President of the League, Mr. Nigel Maraj reports that an average of 4,000 children from all over Trinidad and Tobago participate in the SSCL each year, and he believes that over 100,000 lives have been touched or impacted by PowerGen’s 25-year sponsorship.
General Manager of PowerGen, Dr. Haydn Furlonge is proud of his company’s history with the game.
PowerGen is a reliable and socially responsible long-term energy partner, committed to a greener, more sustainable T&T. In tandem with this vision is our mission to develop this nation and what better way than to support programmes such as the SSCL which directly impact the lives of young people. This league breathes life into our corporate citizenship mandate and we want to be an active partner in helping our nation’s youth to achieve their fullest potential.
PowerGen now proudly sponsors the full lifecycle of cricket at every level with our partnership with our former cricket team captain, Samuel Badree’s BASE Academy which supports children ranging from 5 to 18 years of age, our longstanding sponsorship of the SSCL as well as our champion PowerGen cricket team. A full ecosystem of cricket proudly funded by PowerGen.
Many national cricketers have played in the PowerGen Secondary Schools Cricket League and made successful careers for themselves. These include Kieron Pollard, Dwayne and Darren Bravo, Denesh Ramdin, Darren Ganga, Ravi Rampaul, Lendl Simmons and Samuel Badree.
In 2023, the 25th year of PowerGen’s sponsorship saw a first-time double win for South Trinidad in the PowerGen Secondary Schools Cricket League (SSCL) as Rio Claro West Secondary School and Presentation College San Fernando won the InterCol T20 Girls and Boys titles respectively.
In the first full season since 2019, the Western Wolves of Rio Claro West Secondary beat all odds to defeat Holy Name Convent by six wickets and win their first PowerGen SSCL Girls T20 Intercol Open title.
The Boys’ title was taken by Presentation San Fernando Lions who did battle with Fatima College and sealed a fivewicket win, also their first ever in the SSCL. Both finals were played at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba.
Keira Superville, team captain of Rio Claro Western Wolves, was thrilled but says the road to the win was far from easy for her team. Mrs. Simi Akaloo, the team’s manager and a teacher at the school, praised the girls’ dedication and discipline even admitting that, “Nobody expected us to win, even some of our own people doubted”. Rio Claro is a humble agricultural community and with the high cost of good cricketing equipment, most girls can’t afford cricket shoes and play in their school sneakers.
Keira is grateful for PowerGen’s sponsorship of SSCL and hopes the partnership, “makes a half century”. She is pleased that the SSCL has many formats as it encourages the youth to push for national and international team inclusion. She looks forward to the increase in the number of Girls’ leagues.
Mrs. Akaloo says she is, “thankful to PowerGen for giving the girls a platform to showcase their talent”. She believes that rural government schools need more grassroots programmes to bring girls out and the raw talent needed to help fuel West Indies cricket.
While Cricket Coordinator for Presentation College San Fernando, Carlyle Jalim revealed that Presentation College – San Fernando was one of the participating schools when SSCL began 60 years ago. The school always strives to maintain a balance between academics and sport. Many who play sport at “Pres” obtained “ones” in CSEC as cricket motivates them to put the same amount of energy they put into the sport into academics to improve and excel.
The coach designed a physical training and skills development programme for the teams, which they followed, so when cricket season re-started, they were ready to play. The school has about 60 players playing in all formats of the game. Many are on the under-15 and under-19 national teams, so it is not hard to motivate others who want to play at the national level.
However, selection is just the start. Despite receiving the opportunity to showcase and develop their technical skill, cricketers need discipline, determination and focus. A strong support system is needed for success. The school is already planning fundraising for next year and have already started their training.
President of the League, Mr. Nigel Maraj revealed that future plans for the league include the formation of an SSCL Academy offering scholarships and development tours for the youth to play against different opponents in different conditions to make them better cricketers. He wants to see the development of viable full-time cricketing careers not just part-time hobbies, from which a comfortable living can be earned.
