Berbice cricket team played first class cricket in the

Guystac Trophy The Guystac Trophy was a Guyanese inter-county cricket tournament, the final of which had first-class status. The tournament was played annually, the final being usually between Demerara and Berbice Berbice is a region along the Berbice Rive ...

and against the occasional touring team during the 20th century. The team came from the Dutch colony of

Berbice Berbice is a region along the Berbice River in Guyana, which was between 1627 and 1792 a colony of the Dutch West India Company and between 1792 to 1815 a colony of the Dutch state. After having been ceded to the United Kingdom of Great Britain ...

, which is now a county of

Guyana Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...

History

They played their inaugural first class match in March 1960 against the touring

Marylebone Cricket Club Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influence ...

from England. Berbice were captained by

Joe Solomon Joseph Stanislaus Solomon (born 26 August 1930) is a former international cricketer who played 27 Test cricket, Test matches for the West Indies cricket team, West Indies from 1958 to 1965, scoring 1,326 runs, mainly from number six and seven in ...

who opened the batting and scored 201 not out which remained his highest first class score. Other notable players in the side included

Basil Butcher Basil Fitzherbert Butcher (3 September 1933 – 16 December 2019) was a Guyanese cricketer who played for the West Indies cricket team. He was regarded as a reliable right-handed middle-order batsman in the star-studded West Indian batting line- ...

who also scored a century, and

Rohan Kanhai Rohan Babulal Kanhai (born 26 December 1935) is a Guyanese former cricketer of Tamil Indo-Guyanese origin , who represented the West Indies in 79 Test matches. He is widely considered to be one of the best batsmen of the 1960s. Kanhai featur ...

. In March 1961 they played a draw against EW Swanton's XI and didn't play a first class match again for another decade. During the 1970s and 80s the team played a match every season, bar one, against

Demerara Demerara ( nl, Demerary, ) is a historical region in the Guianas, on the north coast of South America, now part of the country of Guyana. It was a colony of the Dutch West India Company between 1745 and 1792 and a colony of the Dutch state fro ...

, with both sides playing for the Jones Cup and later the

. The first match took place in October 1971 with Basil Butcher as captain. They played annually (except in 1980/81) until 1989 when they played each other for the final time. In 1980/81, Essequibo qualified for the Jones Cup final instead of Demerara. The inter-county tournament continued after 1989/90, but none of the matches were considered first class. Berbice won the Trophy in 1976/77, 1977/78 and 1980/81. The first player from Berbice to play test cricket for the West Indies was John Trim, the fast bowler, in 1948.

References

External links

First-class matches played by BerbiceBerbice Cricket Board launches All Time XI
{{DEFAULTSORT:Berbice West Indian first-class cricket teams Former senior cricket clubs of the West Indies Cricket in Guyana