By Neto Baptiste
President of the Antigua and Barbuda Cricket Association (ABCA), Leon Rodney, said the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has, and will continue to result in a loss of potential revenue for the country.
Rodney said Antigua had been scheduled to host a number of Cricket West Indies (CWI) matches and events that would have brought revenue to the shores of the twin-island state.
“The reality is, from a cricketing standpoint, we [Antigua] have lost a lot, and this is in general and not just the ABCA. From the cancelation of the women’s tournament, someone like me would have lost something because I would have been the coach taking the team to Guyana,” he said.
“From a national standpoint, we would have about-finished all of the preparations in terms of welcoming the CWI under-15 teams, and that would have run well over three weeks, and what would have happened there is that six teams would have had to stay somewhere, they have to eat some food, you have to transport them and that’s a loss,” he added.
The Windies senior men’s team was slated to tour England from May 22 to June 25, a tour which has since been cancelled.
Rodney revealed also that Antigua would have hosted the South Africa under-19 team.
“We were scheduled after that, in June or May, to host the South African under-19s for a tour that would have probably run for a month, again, versus a West Indies team. We are still scheduled, depends on what happens, to host two One Day International matches versus New Zealand and that would be down in July. What is going to happen in July? Your guess could be as good as mine,” he said. CWI was forced to, earlier this month, declare the Barbados Pride champions of the Regional Four Day Championships after the tournament ended prematurely owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.