By Neto Baptiste
President of the Liberta Sports Club Kenneth Benjamin believes that in instances where a final in the cricket association’s local competition is abandoned due to rain with no provisions for a reserve day, the championship should be shared by the teams in the final.
“Quite frankly, and let me say this clearly, I don’t think no [one] team should win because rain came. I think it should have been a joint championship because I can’t see two teams play hard and win the semifinals and come into the finals and then because one team placed higher in the round-robin format they win the championship; I think it should have been a joint championship,” he said.
The former West Indies fast bowler added his voice to ongoing discussions as to whether the Antigua and Barbuda Cricket Association (ABCA) should make provisions for a reserve day in cases where a final may be severely affected by rain.
Liberta Blackhawks were declared champions of the Super 40 Cup two weekends ago after heavy and persistent rains forced match officials to abandon their final against rivals Empire Nation.
Benjamin said the association must make a decision on the way forward.
“A reserve day is not something the clubs vote on; it is something the cricket association put in their regulation so I don’t think the clubs have any say. If the cricket association wants a reserve day they just put it in and say there will be a reserve day. What happens if it rains on the reserve day? At the end of the day that’s why they actually put in a tie-breaker and I believe Kuma [Leon Rodney] was right when he said the association dropped the ball because they were the ones who didn’t put these things into place,” the former player said.
In the case of the two day, Benjamin said that although you could have a reserve weekend, a winner for matches in that format could be decided in different ways.
“The two day, you could have a champion based on first innings, but it seems to me that because somebody say they must have a winner that somebody has to win outright, but that is not the case in the two day. If you want to have a reserved weekend for the two day then that is fine. If the game starts on the Saturday like for instance, the game between Liberta and Empire. If the game was rained out on the Saturday, nobody had won first innings points as yet, so it would have been an abandoned game. If you have a reserved day then you could start it over but if there is no such thing as a reserve weekend, then first innings points will decide if somebody wins on first innings,” he said.
President of the cricket association, Leon Rodney, said the association will discuss the matter and make a determination as to the best way forward.
