President of the Nevis Cricket Association, Keith ‘Dis and Dat’ Scarborough on Monday revealed that his Association has put plans in place to commence the local cricket league in the month of March.
Scarborough noted that two representatives from the Association recently attended a LICA meeting in Antigua and based on the information received plans have now been made by the local Association accordingly.
The two representatives were Brian Dyer and Errol Somersall and the update received from them indicated that the meeting basically involved certain key decisions taken at the meeting. ‘Contrary to what has been circulated, the meeting basically was called to deal with certain financial matters and plans for upcoming tournaments,’ noted the President. Some of the decisions coming out of the LICA meeting were:
· The West Indies under 19 tournament will be held in St.Kitts and Nevis this year Scarborough indicated that he will be meeting with members of the St.Kitts Cricket Association on Sunday 24th February during the WICB four day encounter between Trinidad and Tobago and the Leeward islands to be played at Warner Park. During this meeting, issues of common interest will be discussed and one of them would be a determination as to how many of the WICB under 19 matches will be played in Nevis
· Zorol Bartley and Romel Hughes from the Leeward Islands have been appointed to the West Indies Cricket Board
· The Leeward Islands tournament will commence in June
Now that his Association is aware as to certain tournament plans by LICA, Scarborough informed that his Association has made certain specific plans. The local tourmaments will commence in the month of March and all tournaments will be completed before June, ahead of the LICA tournaments. Scarborough said that in the past, local tournaments have gone on for extended periods because matches have been continually rescheduled because of rain and other reasons. ‘Once the matches are not played when scheduled, both teams will share equal points and we move on,’ he said.
The local tournaments planned will be as follows:
· A six aside tournament to be played on the 9th and 10th of March. Teams will be required to pay a registration fee of $50.00. This will be a fund raiser for the Association.
· The second division tournament will commence on Tuesday March 12th at 4pm and matches will be played on Tuesdays and Thursdays
· The 50 overs competition will commence on Saturday March 16th
Registration per team remains the same as has been the case for the last several years: $200.00 for second division teams and $350.00 for 1st division teams. The deadline for registration is March 5th and teams not registered will not be allowed to participate. No excuses whatsoever will be accepted.
A half of an hour’s grace period will be given to teams after the scheduled start time for games. Teams not fielding a sufficient number of players by the time the umpires call play will forfeit the game.
Scarborough also informed that a pool of approximately 45 players will be selected to form the base of the 1st division competition with the intention of focusing on individuals with the potential to make it to the Nevis team and ultimately to the West Indies team.
Scarborough further indicated that three critical committees have been formed in order to assist the Association to carry out its functions effectively:
· A cricket committee comprising of Stuart Williams; Joel Simmonds and Gerard Charles This committee will take care of matters pertaining to matches organized, ensuring that pitches are properly prepared, umpires assigned etc
· A fund raising committee comprising of Brian Dyer; Gerard Charles and the President himself. This committee will initiate various fund raising efforts and will ensure that they are successfully executed.
· A disciplinary committee has also been put in place: Vernel Powell; Greg Hartman; James Greene and Joseph Liburd.
Scarborough is again appealing to the general public to support the Association in its efforts to get Nevis cricket back to its glory days.