Cricket West Indies (CWI) yesterday disclosed that Guyana will host one T20 and one One Day International when India tours the Caribbean in August.
It was also announced that the Regional Under-19 tournament will be held in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
The decisions follow CWI’s two-day directors’ meeting in Antigua over the weekend.
According to the Regional body, Guyana will hosts the last T20I on August 6 as well as the first One Day International two days later.
A Court ruling which declared the executives of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) as being illegally in office has affected the management of the tour for the territory and, according to CWI, a contingency plan is in place should the ruling of the court on June 19 stand.
CWI Chief Executive Officer, Johnny Grave said, ““Depending on the outcome of the Court hearings in Guyana on 19th June, CWI has a contingency plan in place to work directly with the Government and staff of the GCB if required in order to host the India games in Guyana.”
Grave along with CWI President had met with various stakeholders including the Prime Minister, Moses Nagamootoo and Minister of Social Cohesion with Responsibility for Sport, Dr George Norton when the duo visited the South American mainland last month in a “fact finding mission.”
The meeting also concluded that the decision to move the youth tournament was due to time constraints and uncertainty with the GCB.
Grave stated. “Unfortunately, due to the timescales, we needed to start to organise the U-19s tournament immediately and we couldn’t wait until after the court hearing on the 19th June. It was too difficult to put a contingency plan in place due to the number of teams, matches, venues and the length of the tournament. We have therefore decided to move the tournament to last year’s hosts and hope that we can have the U-19s in Guyana in 2020.”
The release stated, “This year’s tournament has greater significance as it is will be used to select the squad for the ICC U-19 World Cup to be played in South Africa in January 2020. The tournament will only feature 50-over cricket and in addition to the six matches to be played, the top 24 “future stars” will play an additional three 50-over games, “The Best vs The Best”, which will assist the selectors in naming the World Cup squad.”
