By Neto Baptiste
Coach of the Empire Nation cricket team and former national player, Ian Tittle, is taking a ‘whatever will be, will be’ approach in relation to the cricket association’s Super 40 Cup being awarded to rivals Liberta Blackhawks after the forced abandonment of last Sunday’s final due to heavy and consistent showers across Antigua.
Speaking on the Good Morning Jojo sports show, Title said that although his team had just as good a chance of winning the title had the match played, rules are rules and must be applied accordingly.
“I think that all of the clubs agree with that because it has been years now that it has been happening this way so we just have to live with it. I think that both teams had a 50 percent chance of winning the game even though their starters were there or not we have always played them good and Empire is one of the teams that always give Liberta a lot of problems,” he said.
Empire and Blackhawks were scheduled to clash in Liberta after having reached the final following wins in their respective semifinals on Saturday.
Title commended his players for stepping up to the plate but said there is still room for improvement in the standard on a national scale.
“Honestly, I think that this was a down year and that a lot of improvements are there to be made. I think that it starts with the association and then to the clubs. The association needs to put their programmes together so they need to have their programmes and then it will end up around the teams. They are waiting on the teams to have a programme and the players come from there to the association but the association needs to have their own stuff,” he said.
The Gray’s Farm team had an outstanding 2023 season after reaching four finals and winning two. Empire won the 10 Splash Tournament held in January while also claiming the Cool & Smooth T20 title in May.
