T20s in Florida an abomination - Guyana President

Guyana President Donald Ramotar has strongly criticised the West Indies Cricket Board for moving the two Twenty20 internationals against New Zealand to Florida. Ramotar said that the decision was an "abomination" and unfair to the Caribbean regional governments who had spent heavily in the development of stadiums.

"Governments invested millions of dollars in building facilities to enhance the game and to promote the growth of the sport," Ramotar said. "However, today we face the abomination - key matches are now being taken out of the region while some of our territories are deliberately deprived. This must be of great concern to us.

"West Indies Cricket is not the private property of some administrators but it is a regional public good."

West Indies hosted New Zealand in Florida for the T20I leg of the ongoing bilateral tour, a decision WICB president Julian Hunte had described as "long overdue."

"This was a bold expansion of the series beyond the shores of the Caribbean, and we are excited to have brought the game back to the scores of West Indies fans in North America," Hunte said.

Ramotar, however, said that cricket administrators were working in self-interest. "Cricket is one of the first truly regional institutions that has fostered the confidence that we can successfully integrate," Ramotar said. "It has given us heroes and role models and is perhaps the best emblem we have of our regional identity.

"Some administrators of the sport seem not to care about the importance of this institution but more about perpetuating themselves at any cost."