Leewards’ manager hits washout

Hughes said the St Lucia National Cricket Association apparently informed the West Indies Cricket Board late about the change of venue from Beausejour, which host Test and One-Day Internationals.

In addition, the covers provided were inadequate while the water hog was left at Beausejour.

"The match was actually scheduled to play as Beausejour and we visited Beausejour on two occasions since we have been here and it has been dry on both times that we visited there," Hughes said. "(It was) dry enough to have played and we were quite surprised when we got into the airport at St Lucia and were informed that match was going to be played at Mindoo Phillip Park."

He added: "My understanding is that not even the West Indies Cricket Board knew about the change of venue and that seemed very surprising to us."

"No play at this crucial juncture of the tournament is very (hard) for us. It means that we have to work a lot harder in our next game to see if we can make it in the next stage because there is only one match left for us to play."

Hughes said the four days of inactivity did not augur well for the team and said that he was not even able to secure a practice venue for his squad.

"It is very disappointing for me and the players to be sitting around for basically a week doing nothing. We weren’t able to practise. When we contacted local officials about practice facilities they said they don’t have anything in writing to be able to use any other venue, particularly Beausejour," he lamented. "When I spoke to the officials at Beausejour they invited us to come over whenever we can to come and practise but the local cricket officials didn’t seemed to be too accommodating at all." He added: "There’s no doubt that something needs to be done with the way this particular match has been organised."