The Berbice Cricket Board (BCB) was established in 1939, and it is currently located at Cheddi Jagan Street, New Amsterdam.
The original member clubs of the BCB were Albion, Blairmont, Canje, Mental Hospital Sports Club (now known as Fort Canje), Police, Port Mourant, Providence, Rose Hall and Skeldon. With the exception of Mental Hospital and Police Sports Club, these clubs were based on sugar estates.
Currently, BCB has three associations and 13 clubs. The associations are West Berbice Cricket Association, Berbice River (Riverain), and Upper Corentyne Cricket Association. The Clubs are Blairmont, Bermine, Police, Albion, Port Mourant, Skeldon, Rose Hall/Canje, Young Warriors, Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports, Kildonan, Mental Hospital, Whim, and Mount Sinai.
Around the start of the 20th century, British investor Lieutenant-Colonel Ivan Davson, donated the Davson Cup for First Division competition between Berbice clubs. This competition rose to a high level of competition and by 1948 Berbice produced its first Test cricketer, John Trim, a fast bowler from Port Mourant Cricket Club.
The Berbice cricket team played first class cricket in the Guystac Trophy and against the occasional touring team during the 20th century. The team came from the Dutch colony of Berbice, which is now a county of Guyana.
Berbice played their inaugural first class match in March 1960 against the touring Marylebone Cricket Club from England. They were captained by Joe Solomon 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 who also scored a century, and Rohan Kanhai. 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 1980s, the team played a match every season, bar one, against Demerara, with both sides playing for the Jones Cup and later the Guystac Trophy. 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.
