By Neto Baptiste
President of the Antigua and Barbuda Cricket Association (ABCA), Leon Rodney, has assured that the body has dispatched the necessary protocol documents to the sport’s regional governing body, Cricket West Indies (CWI), as they move towards the reopening of cricket at a competitive level.
“We would have already sent the protocols that we intend to use over to CWI because one of the agreements out of the meeting [Cabinet] is that, instead of sending the protocols to the Ministry of Sports first is that we will send it over to CWI so their medical people will see if they are satisfied with what we are trying to do from a local standpoint and make sure it [corresponds] with what they have, and then they would send it back over to us and we will pass it on to the Ministry of Sports,” he said.
The government, during last Wednesday’s sitting of Cabinet, approved a proposal for the restart of cricket at a competitive level. Rodney and CEO of Cricket West Indies, Johnny Greaves, were both present at the Cabinet meeting and made verbal presentations supporting a safe return to cricket.
Rodney reminded however that until the protocols are approved by the relevant authorities, eager players and fans like will continue to wait for live on-field action.
“Because obviously, nothing can be done even though there is an agreement that we could have competitions, nothing can be done without approval from the Ministry of Health, so we have sent it [protocol document] over to the CWI already and they are fully on board that we could go ahead and have some competitions,” he said.
Rodney said previously that the association is targeting December to host its first competition. Expectations are that Antigua will bid to host a leg of the CWI Super 50 earmarked for January next year. There has been no competitive cricket in Antigua since March, after the government stopped all competitions following the country’s first case of the coronavirus.