Sunday League cricket called off

IN AN unprecedented move yesterday, the National Cricket League have decided to suspend indefinitely the Carib Beer sponsored Sunday League competition. The NCL, headed by new chairman Patrick Rampersad have been forced to take the drastic action because of unseasonal rain which has so far prevented the competition from getting underway. The Carib Sunday League was originally scheduled to start on January 9 but heavy rains in the week leading up to the date rendered the grounds unplayable and it was decided to defer the first round.

However the second and third rounds were similarly affected on the weekend of January 15 and 16 and fears were expressed that the fourth round scheduled for today would not be possible because of the poor weather. Yesterday Administrative Manager of the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board Rambhai Patel, who is also secretary of the NCL said at an emergency meeting yesterday they decided to suspend the competition. “We will meet with the representatives of the 16 clubs in the competition on Wednesday from 5.30 pm at the National Cricket Centre at Balmain to address the situation,” said Patel yesterday.

Last week Rampersad, president of the Ceramic Merry Boys Cricket Club met with the club representatives and tabled a proposal to change the format of the competition to allow for the maximum amount of matches possible after the rain curtailed two rounds of the Sunday League.
However the clubs rejected the idea opting instead to keep the format of two groups of eight teams each, obviously hoping that the weather will improve to allow play. But instead the rain has persisted also seriously affecting the third round Carib Beer Series regional clash between Trinidad and Tobago and the Leeward Islands at the Queen’s Park Oval in Port-of-Spain.

This match was scheduled to get underway on Friday but the first two days play have been washed out with the likelihood that further rain will render the contest meaningless. The decision to stop the Sunday League because of the weather is the first time that such action has been taken and will mean losses running into thousands of dollars for players and officials. Close to $500,000 are at stake in prizes, incentives and fees to players and officials including umpires and match referees but without any play the opportunity to earn cash will go abegging. Also, more importantly several leading players bidding for places on the national team for the regional competitions will be denied the opportunity to address the selectors with their performances.

These include cricketers who were in the national training squad — Gregory Mahabir of FCB Clarke Road United; Kenton Thompson of Police; Rishi Bachan, Brent Harriot and Gibran Mohammed of PowerGen Sports; Rodney Sooklal of Alescon Comet; and Theodore Modeste and Atiba Alert of W Connection Wanderers. Another player who will be keen to stake his claim for a Trinidad and Tobago recall is Aneil Kanhai who plays for Merry Boys but will be disappointed the weather is conspiring to dent his hopes.