Rodney: Tri Nation Cancelled

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The Antigua and Barbuda Cricket Association (ABCA) has been forced to cancel one of its major competitions this year.
President of the organisation, Leon “Kuma” Rodney, confirmed on Thursday that the association will not host its annual Tri Nation cricket tournament this year due to the unavailability of the country’s top venues.
The tournament, which would have entered its third year, was captured by Jamaica last year after they defeated Guyana in the finals at the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Ground.
“We have no alternative, we’ve gone through it over and over and we just can’t get it in because of fixture [dates] and ground availability. Part I am not going to be able to tell you until the West Indies cricket board finally say that but based on the time we usually have the tournament [in October], teams that would have been invited and you know Jamaica won last year and Guyana came in and so one of those teams would have been re-invited,” he said.
“Our understanding, based on some fixtures from the CWI [Cricket West Indies], it would not be possible to invite one of those teams and the availability of the grounds to play the matches would not be possible,” he added.
Cricket West Indies is slated to host Bangladesh from July 4 to August 5, after which the regional season is scheduled to bowl off.
Antigua and Barbuda failed to reach last year’s Tri Nation finals following losses to both Jamaica and Guyana in the preliminaries.
The cricket boss went on to reveal that the unavailability of the major facilities could also force the association to make changes to its annual youth tournament. 
“We are working on it feverishly at the present moment because right now, grounds is a serious situation and especially to do day and night. I have no doubt in my mind that we will still do a youth tournament, whether it is going to be under-15 or under-17 but the day and night part of it may not work out,” he said.
Last year’s under-17 tournament had seen a change in format with majority of the matches being played during daylight hours. Only the final encounter was played as a day/night contest.
 

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