BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – One tournament has been shelved, and two others have found space on the West Indies Cricket Board’s regional schedule.
In light of the ongoing financial challenges being experienced throughout the Caribbean and the world, the WICB will indefinitely postpone the launch of the proposed Twenty20 Calypso Cup.
“Instead, we will focus on building the Caribbean T20 brand by expanding the regional tournament to include the two finalists of the England & Wales Cricket Board’s T20 competition, as well as Canada,” said WICB Chief Executive Officer Ernest Hilaire at a media conference on Sunday, following a two-day directors meeting.
This year’s inaugural CT20 contested last July in Barbados and Trinidad featured eight teams.
The traditional six territorial sides – Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Leeward Islands, Trinidad & Tobago, and Windward Islands, along with the expansion side Combined Campuses & Colleges, and invitational side Canada.
These sides will be joined in January by English champions Hampshire Royals and runners-up Somerset for whom all-rounder Kieron Pollard played to take the number of teams to 10.
The WICB has now also fixed the regional Under-15 and Under-19 tournaments for the months of July and August during the summer vacation period for most secondary school students.
“The Under-15 tournament has been moved from the Easter period to allow more time because we are going to move away from the competition being a series of one-day matches to two-day matches,” said Hilaire.
“We believe it is critical for the development of the Under-15 players that we do not just have one-day matches, so there will be more time available for them to play more cricket.”
He added: “There will also be quite significant changes in the rules of the tournament. It will be compulsory for the teams to have fast bowlers, and do away with an emerging practice where teams rely heavily on slow bowlers.
“We want to give more opportunities for our young fast bowlers to play, and there will be some other changes that will assist us with the nurturing of players.”
Hilaire also confirmed that a regional Under-17 tournament will be played annually in December, with the inaugural tournament taking place in that month next year.
“When we got responses from stakeholders, they made it very clear that the Easter period was not a good time for youth cricket because it was just before a period of examinations for students,” he said.
“We wanted the Under-17 to be separate from the Under-15 and Under-19 because we felt that the Under-15s could play in the Under-17s, and Under-17 could play at the Under-19 level. But we will not allow Under-15s to play in the Under-19 tournament.”
