The 2021 West Indies Regional Four-Day Championships could possibly begin in April and be joint hosted by Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados.
This was revealed by Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Cricket West Indies (CWI), Johnny Grave during an interview on Barbados radio programme, Mason and Guest on Tuesday.
The CEO confirmed that CWI was looking to host the first two matches in Barbados before moving on to Trinidad and Tobago. However, those plans are still in the initial stages and talks among the governments and territorial boards are still ongoing.
“The intention is to play as I said the West Indies Championship after Easter in Barbados and then onto Trinidad and again as soon as we’ve made a bit more progress with the BCA [Barbados Cricket Association], the Barbados Government, the TTCB [Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board] and the Trinidad Government we will be in a better position to announce that [fixtures],” Grave stated.
The Englishman was asked about the sudden spike in Covid-19 cases in Barbados and the impact that could potentially have on the country as it relates to their chances of hosting the event.
Grave explained that the new direction cricket has taken with regards to making a mandatory bio-secure environment will make play possible in virtually any country.
He reasoned, “I think it’s too early to tell obviously, the West Indies championship or four-day game, we are looking to host two rounds in Barbados after Easter in April and obviously we hope and pray the situation in Barbados improves but at the same time what we are creating with cricket now is a bio-secure bubble so in a sense it doesn’t really matter where you are because you are not really coming into contact with any of the communities in which you are playing cricket because you are confined in the main to the hotel and accommodation and the cricket grounds you’re playing and training at.”
Grave added, “We are obviously living and working in unprecedented times with huge uncertainty so this is still best case scenario and subject to everything as you can imagine.”
On the heels of the Covid-19 pandemic, CWI was forced to prematurely end its Regional first-class competition after just eight rounds back in March, 2020 with Barbados Pride ending Guyana Jaguars’ five-year winning streak.
Since the pandemic hit the Caribbean, Barbados have kept the impact relatively under wraps for most of 2020. The Island, as of January 6, confirmed 743 cases with 360 coming since the start of 2021. In this same period, Trinidad and Tobago have recorded 7210 cases with 60 in the first week of 2021.
Meanwhile, 6469 cases have been recorded in Guyana, 137 of which have been confirmed in 2021.
