Vin­ode Mam­chan

The long-play­ing Ger­ry Gomez North/South Clas­sic will not be played at the end of the month, as has be­come cus­tom­ary. This is be­cause the T&T Crick­et Board (TTCB) is try­ing to give the na­tion­al team all the nec­es­sary prepa­ra­tion time, with the Re­gion­al T20 crick­et se­ries just weeks away. First vice-pres­i­dent of the TTCB, Dud­nath Ramkessoon ex­plained: "We have de­cid­ed to change up the struc­ture of the lo­cal sea­son a bit to ad­dress the needs of the na­tion­al se­nior team. "The an­nu­al North/South Clas­sic is nor­mal­ly the first big match on the lo­cal crick­et cal­en­dar but we have de­cid­ed in­stead to play some in­vi­ta­tion­al match­es in­volv­ing the na­tion­al team and make it a T20 for­mat.

"The play­ers are prepar­ing for the re­gion­al T20 crick­et se­ries and hav­ing them play the Clas­sic right now will not suit their needs. "We need to give our play­ers every chance to be ready for the re­gion­al se­ries and with the weath­er be­ing as it is, they would have suf­fered enough for match prac­tice." Ramkessoon said this did not mean the end of the North/South Clas­sic. "This is by no means a sig­nal that we have come to the end of the North/South Clas­sic era. It is just that at this point in time, we are try­ing the fa­cil­i­tate the prepa­ra­tion of the na­tion­al se­nior team." Three T20 in­vi­ta­tion­al match­es will be played on De­cem­ber 28, 29 and 30.