West Indies: Nortel Championship - More distress (11 Jul 1998)

11 July 1998

More distress in NorTel

By Garth Wattley

DISTRESSINGLY for the players involved, but not surprisingly, the weather took all the spoils on the final day of competition action in first round matches of the NorTel West Indies Under-19 cricket championships.

Playing cards or stretching muscles in hope was not necessary for hosts Trinidad and Tobago and the Windward Islands at Inshan Ali Park in Preysal where further rain yesterday kept the ground wet, soggy and unplayable.

For their three days of frustration, however, the two sides picked up four points each. This will not please the home team who were banking on full points from this first encounter to steal an early lead in the group.

Over at Presentation College in Chaguanas, defending champions Guyana and Jamaica also collected four points from their abandoned match.

Persistent overnight and mid-morning showers left the ground in Chaguanas waterlogged, and forced the officials to abandon play-without a ball being bowled-for the third consecutive day. The conditions became progressively worse with constant showers and hardly any sunlight in the last two days.

With the state of the outfield and pitch, match referee Parasram Ramsubhag, umpires Zainool Maccum and Bassant Sahadeo in consultation with the managers, coaches and captains, decided at 1.00 p.m. to abandon play for the day.

The frustration was mutual for the two managers.

Guyana's Patrick Legall was distressed.

"What can we do?" he asked. "The rains made the grounds unfit for cricket and it is sad that these youngsters cannot play. They have trained very hard and are looking forward to successfully defending the NorTel title".

Jamaica's Lyndel Wright felt it was "an injustice to the young players who are here and cannot play".

"Based on the report I received before leaving Jamaica, I was shocked to be greeted by rain in Trinidad. I was told that the weather was fine and we would have exciting cricket."

Wright will be hoping for a change in fortunes come today when his side takes on the Leeward Islands at the same ground.

Originally, the game was to be played at Gilbert Park. But the persistent rain has affected pitch preparation and left the ground in an unfit state.

Guyana, like T&T, will travel to Tobago for non-championship matches. The Guyanese, led by senior team player Ramnaresh Sarwan, will travel to Tobago, where they will take on the NorTel Youth Development at Goodwood in group B.

The home team, aiming at least for some match practice, will tackle Canada at Bon Accord.

The top teams of the group will advance to the championship round which starts on July 20.

Source :: The Trinidad Express (https://www.trinidad.net/express/)