TT Carib Beer semi spot in balance

BRIDGETOWN: Trinidad and Tobago cricket team will be depending on a drawn result or a West Indies “B” victory over India “A” as the two guest teams battle in their rescheduled seventh round Carib Beer 2003 Cricket Series fixture at Kensington Oval, starting at 10 am today.

The Indians’ maximum 12-point haul against Jamaica on Monday pushed them to 33 points, with a game in hand, and an excellent position to make the top four for the Carib Beer International Shield play-off. The Jamaicans are currently joint third with Trinidad and Tobago on 43 points, but ahead of the twin-island republic on the tie break, having won their head to head meeting. A victory for India “A” would vault the visitors into third spot on 45 points behind champions Barbados (72) and Guyana (48), displacing Trinidad and Tobago as a top four team.

The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) re-scheduled the outstanding fixture, as well as the semi-finals and final; with the first round match between West Indies “B” and India “A”  that had been postponed because of the visitors’ late arrival in the Caribbean.  “The WICB did not feel it was fair for India “A” to forfeit the points for missing the first round match and, now that they have a chance to make it in to the semi-finals for the Carib Beer International Challenge Trophy, we had to shift our dates around,” remarked Michael Hall, the Chief Cricket Development Officer of the WICB. The staging of the West Indies “B”/India “A” fixture means that the semi-finals and final of the Carib Beer International Challenge will be delayed by one week. The semi-finals will now start on March 28 and the final on April 4.