By Neto Baptiste
The recently ended 10 Splash Cricket Tournament put on by the Antigua and Barbuda Cricket Association (ABCA) could become a permanent fixture on the body’s calendar.
This is the word from president of the association, Leon Rodney, who said that given the momentum gained by the tournament in its first year, it would be difficult to convince fans and players alike that the tournament cannot be played on an annual basis.
“I think we are now placed in a position where we will have no alternative. It is going to take some work, however. Obviously, it’s going to take sponsorship because it would not be sustainable for the association to do it all alone, so once we can seek some sponsorship, and it’s sounding good because we have a lot of interest that hopefully could be sold, especially in the Indian area where they bet on things like these,” he said.
“Given some new platforms that will be set up and so forth, it’s sounding good from a discussion standpoint that this could be a marque tournament for that kind of stuff,” he added.
The PIC Liberta Blackhawks captured the title after going unbeaten in the second and final round of the tournament held at the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Round.
Rodney said that although there are some minor areas that could be improved going forward, the tournament was a major success.
“There are one or two issues that we could have done better, but whenever you’re doing anything there is always going to be some challenges but at the end of the day I think everything was done very professionally. All the teams were properly sanitized and had their temperature tested and things like that, so I think that all in all it’s fair to say we had a very good tournament,” he said.
The 10 Splash Cricket Tournament was introduced as a “comeback” competition for cricket after the association had successfully sought permission from the government for a competitive return to the sport in November.
Prior to the tournament which started in early December, there had been no competition since March this year after the government had ordered a lockdown of competitions amidst the coronavirus pandemic.