Semi-pro leagues for Trinidad

Second vice-president of the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (T&TCB) Dr Allen Sammy made the disclosure that cricket would be semi-professional at a media conference for the announcement of Carib's sponsorship of T&TCB competitions yesterday.

At the Carib Hospitality Suite in Champs Fleurs, Carib announced their $437,935 sponsorship of four tournaments: the Carib National League, Carib Sunday League, the Carib Shield and the Carib Reserve League Limited Overs competitions. It represents an increase of some $27,000 from the previous year.

Sammy stated that Patrick Rampersad had been appointed to head a sub-committee for coming up with a plan to execute the semi-professional league in 2007.

Sammy added that the re-introduction of three consecutive days of cricket to rounds two and four of the Carib National League was a signal to clubs to prepare themselves for that reality in 2007. "All games will have to be played on Friday, Saturday and Sunday," he revealed, "The two rounds of three-day games in next year's competition is an experiment to get all clubs accustomed to that format which is intended to be the format of the 2007 competition."

Sammy warned though, that the introduction of a semi-pro league would require an adjustment in the culture and attitude of everyone involved and would necessitate reforms in coaching and club structure "for the league to be success."

Earlier, Carib public relations manager Colin Murray had expressed some concern over what he termed as the impasse on the Board's executive and the current impasse between the two opposing umpires bodies.

TTCB Forbes Persaud stated that, to his knowledge, there was no division among the executive although TTCB first-vice president Dudnath Ramkessoon among others, was notably absent at the media conference yesterday.

With reference to the umpire impasse, Persaud said the Board had been assured by the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Umpires & Scorers Council (T&TCU&SC) that there will be enough umpires to run the Carib competitions beginning next year.