By Neto Baptiste
Fast bowling icon and the first Antigua to play on the West Indies cricket team, Sir Andy Roberts, has rated the 2020 edition of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL), calling it the “lowest standard” of professional cricket he has seen over the past two decades.
Speaking on the Good Morning Jojo Sports Show, Sir Andy expressed disappointment over what he believes is an overall lack of preparation.
“The standard of play, the standard of pitches are not good for our cricket and I can clearly say it’s the lowest standard of cricket that I have watched on television in the last 20 years. My biggest disappointment is that we have a tournament that is part of our calendar year and I know we blame Covid for everything, but this is not something we should try to pin the blame on Covid because I am very disappointed with the standard of the pitches so far in the competition. We are making bowlers look 10 times as good as they are and especially in the spin department,” he said.
The batting, in particular, has been called into question throughout the tournament with teams sometimes struggling to amass over 100 runs.
Sir Andy, who claimed 202 wickets in 47 Tests said believes more should have been done to better prepare pitches earmarked for use in the tournament.
“You knew about three or four months ago that you’re going to have this tournament in Trinidad, one country, but you have two different facilities that you’re going to play at so arrangements should have been made to get all pitches up to a certain standard, and when I say all, I mean the entire square, because you can’t just use two pitches for the amount of matches you are going to be playing on them,” the former player said.
In a recent semi-final clash between the St. Lucia Zouks and the Guyana Amazon Warriors, the latter were restricted to just 55 all out in 13.4 overs. The Zouks needed only 4.3 overs to overhaul the total with Rahkeem Cornwall hitting 32 off 17 deliveries.
In the other semifinal contest, Trinbago Knight Riders beat the Jamaica Tallawahs by nine wickets after successfully chasing 107 for the win.