PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC-A top cricket official in Trinidad and Tobago claims the upcoming Caribbean Premier League (CPL) will disrupt his country’s preparations for the Champions League T20 tournament which follows.
Baldath Mahabir, an executive member of that country’s cricket board, is concern that members of the team will not be playing together as a unit in the CPL which runs from July 30 to August 24.
T&T’s Red Force has for the fourth time qualified for the world club tournament in September in India. “While we should have had our players taking part in matches and playing together as a unit, we will now have a situation where they would be playing against each other one week and then playing together the next week,” complained Mahabir, also a Director on the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB).
“This is not ideal preparation for the boys as they look to give a good account of themselves in the Champions League, this being the last tournament that T&T as a nation would be competing in.”
Mahabir said the squad for India will soon be announced and should have been playing matches together to gel as a unit before the tournament.
Roughly three weeks separate the end of the CPL from the start of the Champions League T20, a critical preparation phase for the prestigious event. “Looking at the CPL dates we can safely say that it would be difficult to stage matches where the national team will be involved,” said Mababir.
“At the end of the CPLT20 we would look to see at what time we have remaining for staging a camp for the management to work with the players as one group and then look to see what matches we can arrange for them”.
The national team was engaged in a two-match series against Jamaica in Fort Lauderdale as part of their preparations last year.
They were also involved in a four-nation tournament at home, won by Afghanistan.
