By Neto Baptiste
At least three other Caribbean countries stand to benefit from separate installations of the popular Cool & Smooth T20 Explosion following recent confirmation that the local edition will be discontinued.
This is according to organizer, Dario Barthley, who said the St Kitts competition which saw its inaugural edition in 2024, will return in 2025. Barthley added that negotiations are ongoing with two other regional countries to have similar T20 competitions this year even as they search for suitable windows within the cricket calendar.
“There are a few periods we are looking at and obviously because we want people to watch it, you want to get a period where there is not much going on but in terms of the Cool & Smooth T20 tournaments, I wouldn’t be too worried about dates but they will come off. There will definitely be one or two and possibly three Cool & Smooth T20s in 2025 in other territories,” he said.
Although not confirmed, reports indicate that Jamaica and Dominica are the islands also in negotiations to host similar tournaments.
Despite being forced to cancel this year’s edition of the tournament here, Barthley assured that both the Cool & Smooth and Joma brands will continue their involvement in cricket and sports overall in Antigua.
“Our efforts will go more towards the youth product and the national product which we have always supported. We are still very much involved with cricket and in talks with the ABCA. There are still plans to do a lot more in cricket. It’s one [Cool & Smooth T20] cricket tournament and yes, it was a very successful cricket tournament in my eyes and very important to not only the local structure but the regional structure of cricket as well but things come to an end,” he said.
The administrator also clarified that the Joma T10, first held in 2024, was not discontinued because of similar issues to that of the Cool & Smooth T20 Explosion but rather on the request of the Antigua and Barbuda Cricket Association (ABCA).
“The Joma Caribbean T10 didn’t break down over sponsorship of financial arrangements. The ABCA has a T10 that they normally administer and they decided they wanted that to be the only T10 competition so the Joma Caribbean T10 was disbanded then, and now the Cool & Smooth T20 comes to what I consider its natural end,” Barthley said.
The 2024 edition of the Cool & Smooth T20 Explosion was cancelled following failed negotiations between Barthley and ABCA teams regarding possible financial benefits to local players.
