By Neto Baptiste
President of the Jennings Cricket Club, Glen Miller, is still adamant that his team should have been crowned champions of the Antigua and Barbuda Cricket Association’s (ABCA) Two Day competition after the season was halted in March due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
His statement comes on the heels of an ABCA press release stating that all tournaments scheduled for the 2020 season, including the staffed Two Day, have been cancelled.
“The Covid-19 situation is no fault of none of us and we play a points competition and if the semifinals is unable to go, then the [team] with the most points would go to the finals, and if for some unforeseen reason the final cannot be played then the highest seeded team with the most points would be the champions. So because we actually covered more than half of the Two Day competition, then I believe that we deserve to be champions,” he said.
The release, issued on Monday, added that consideration would be given to the hosting of a T20 Tournament later in the year, hopefully during the country’s Independence celebration in November.
The cricket association also announced that “given the rules and regulations governing the ABCA Two Day Cricket Tournament, they cannot announce any winners for the ABCA Two Day 2020 Competition.”
Stating he has no option but to accept the decision at this point, Miller questioned the reasoning behind cancelling all competitions given some are not scheduled to start until later in the year.
“West Indies Cricket Board, they declared Barbados champions, so I just think that to call it off is not the right way and I am not in agreement. Even pertaining to the season, I don’t think we should call it off. I think that we should wait it out and play by ear and see what sort of development comes and even have our One Day competition,” the former player said.
Jennings led the Two Day competition with 48 points, three ahead of Pigotts who have 43. Liberta Blackhawks are were third with 37 while Empire followed in fourth also on 37 points. Bethesda lay fifth with 23, New Winthorpes and Rising Sun Spartans are both on 22 in the sixth and seventh spots while Pythons, Combined Schools and Bolans were eighth, ninth and 10th respectively.