TTCB – News

Green light for new T&TCB cricket plan
July 14, 2011

PRESIDENT of the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board Azim Bassarath, left, welcomes chairman of the South Zone Leo Doodnath to the Movement for Change meeting on Wednesday at the National Cricket Centre in Balmain, Couva.
Photo courtesy T&T Cricket Board

THE DRAFT proposals for the restructuring of the National League has received the resounding approval of clubs and officials and will come up for approval by the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board at their next quarterly meeting on July 23 at the National Cricket Centre in Balmain, Couva.

The final document represents a triumph for the committee set up by the T&TCB following representation by an overwhelming number of clubs about difficulties faced under the present system comprising the Premier League, Championship Division and Zonal competitions.

The T&TCB committee was headed by its general secretary Arjoon Ramlal and comprised Board secretary Sukesh Maniam; Dr Allen Sammy, T&T representative on the WICB Board of Directors; National League secretary Anil Kamal and executive member Patrick Rampersad.

And there was praise all around for the work of the committee on Wednesday when the Movement for Change supporters met to give their blessings at a meeting at the National Cricket Centre attended by more than 60 representatives of the respective zones and clubs.

The incumbent Movement for Change members are confident of turning back the fledgling challenge from the Friends of Cricket when elections for the national executive are held at the end of October this year.

Giving an overview of the restructuring process , general secretary Ramlal said there was widespread discussion which prompted several amendments and paid tribute to Justice Anthony Lucky for his early guidance in framing the draft proposals.

Ramlal said the two main issues engaging the attention of the T&TCB were the proposed amendment to the constitution and the restructuring of the National League. He said the former was a work in progress but that they were able to complete the latter task following positive feedback from the clubs.

After a review of the T&TCB competitions and studied consideration of the club complaints, the committee was in agreement that the length of the Championship season was problematic for players and their support staff.

He said teams coming up from the zones were accustomed to a seven-match season who were now required to play 11 matches and that there were additional costs associated with transportation of the teams to away venues and the provision of meals on match days.

Ramlal said that a major concern was also the necessity to afford the players at the highest level the opportunity to play two- innings matches over four days as this would prepare them for competitions at a regional and Test level.

“We came up with a structure that we believe would serve our cricketers well for the future after giving everyone the chance to voice their opinion and to make suggestions so that the best way forward could be devised,” said Ramlal.

The proposed structure will involve 42 clubs comprising 12 in the Premier League and three Championship Zones of ten clubs each, namely East and North-East; North and Central; and South, South-East and South-West.

He said there was also the need to include Tobago in the Championship Division and that discussion will soon determine how they would fit into the new structure stressing that everyone participating must feel comfortable with the new set up.

Also present at the meeting was president of the T&TCB Azim Bassarath, leader of the Movement for Change and overwhelming favourite to retain his leadership position when elections are held.

Bassarath put his troops on election footing and sounded confident that all is in place to advance the cause of cricket in the coming years. He said the present administration are the custodians of the game and that the Movement for Change would not bring the organization or cricket into disrepute by engaging the Friends of Cricket in tit for tat exchanges in the media.

“Hunters have a saying in the bush that when rain set up, monkeys make a lot of noise in the trees,” said Bassarath. “We will not base our campaign for re-election on lies and innuendo but on the solid track record of our accomplishments,” said a confident Bassarath.

The T&TCB chief welcomed South Zone chairman Leo Doodnath and his entourage to the meeting which was a big boost for the Movement for Change who are quietly galvanising support through the hard work of their foot soldiers and also their top officials who are crossing all boundaries to ensure victory.