SPORTS
Jonathan Ramnansingh
The TRINIDAD and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB) 2022 domestic season officially kicks off, after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, on February 26 with a T10 tournament.
The tournament will be held at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba and will feature six teams selected from geographical areas by national coaches, the unrelated duo of David and Kelvin Williams.
The T10 was originally scheduled to start in early February, but was postponed as Cricket West Indies (CWI) confirmed the use of the southern venue for the start of its four-day regional championship.
The T10 will be followed by the U-19 and U-15 tournaments starting on March 2 and 4 respectively.
TTCB President Azim Bassarath welcomed the long-awaited return to the game, which was made official by the Ministry of Sports and Community Development on January 23.
The Ministry announced that its proposal for the return to play for the safe zone, after consultation with interested parties and officials, had been approved.
Bassarath said it will be all systems go for domestic cricket to resume and asserted that all TTCB-sanctioned tournaments will adhere to the Ministry’s regulations.
“The Ministry of Sports and the Ministry of Health have already issued guidelines for the return to sports and we will follow them. There is no more permission we need to get from any ministry to restart.
“Because they have already issued the regulations, we are proceeding with the instructions from those regulations to resume the sport,” he said.
The U-15 and U-19 tournaments will be held in community venues around the country. These two events were originally scheduled to start on February 16 (U-19) and February 18 (U-15) respectively, but, due to rehabilitation works at community facilities, they were rescheduled to March 2 and 4 respectively.
Bassarath said facelift and sanitization works have already started in many places. The extra wait to resume play, he said, allows those workers enough time to get the field in good playing condition and the players, a chance to extend and strengthen their training regimen.
“At the request of some area councils, we want to give the U-15 and U-19 players as much time as possible to carry out sufficient training and for the areas to bring the pitches on which these will be played tournament. up to standard.
“Some regional corporations have already started participating in the field. The Princes Town Regional Corporation is a leader in this regard.
“On Thursday, a great deal of work was done at the Cunjal recreation ground. We have seen that work has started in certain areas and we hope that other regional corporations will follow”, he added.
On January 5, the cricket board optimistically revealed its detailed itinerary of events for 2022, two weeks before the return of the Ministry’s regulations for the game.
Prior to this announcement, domestic cricket and most other local sports were banned since the pandemic hit in mid-March 2020.
The TTCB, together with the Ministry of Sports and the Ministry of Health, have mandated that all players, officials, staff and club members must be vaccinated to participate in any TTCB sanctioned tournament. Only fully vaccinated fans will be allowed into the grounds to watch matches.
Following these three opening tournaments, the eventful 2022 TTCB calendar continues into June with a series of local races.
Also back in action will be the U-13, U-17, U-19, U-23, National League, North/South Classics and a franchise T20 festival.
