St. George's, January 15, 2009, (GIS) - It's believed to be the largest cash prize ever made available for a sporting competition in Grenada - $60,000. It's the prize money for a National Cricket Club championship that was officially launched on Monday. Seven clubs, including one from Carriacou, are competing in the tournament. Among them are Police of St. George, Veterans from St. David, Maran from St. John, River View of St. Mark and a St. Patrick club, Hermitage. R.E. Walker River View is representing St Andrew, while the lone Carriacou club is from Mt. Royal. Coordinator in the Ministry of Sports, Conrad Francis, says the aims of the competition are to build stronger club structure and raise the standard of discipline among local cricketers. He defended the high-paying cricket tournament, and said the mandate of the Ministry of Sport is to give "support to all sporting disciplines.'' The Sports Coordinator said the Ministry does not want to continue spearheading the newly launched cricket competition. Mr. Francis expects greater collaboration with the cricket association and with other sporting groups in organizing national sporting tournaments in the future. "We think there should be greater collaboration when it comes to some of the competitions,'' said Mr. Francis. "We know that most of our local federations are struggling when it comes to finance, but we do not want sporting organizations to feel that the Ministry is just a body that they can piggyback on when they need finance". Policy Advisor in the Ministry of sports, Kenrick Fullerton, described cricket as the number one sport played in Grenada. He reiterated that the Ministry's role in the competition is that of organizing, and of indicating the level and manner in which the tournament should be hosted. "What we recognized,'' said Mr. Fullerton, "is that unlike football where you have a premier league, first division and even a second division, there isn't this kind of competition for cricket.''