The ex­ec­u­tive of the T&T Crick­et Board (TTCB) met on Wednes­day and de­cid­ed that there will be no more crick­et for this year un­der its aegis, due to the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic.

The de­ci­sion came af­ter de­tailed con­ver­sa­tions with rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Na­tion­al League, zon­al af­fil­i­ates and clubs, and the TTCB was al­so guid­ed in their de­lib­er­a­tions by of­fi­cial gov­ern­ment pol­i­cy as enu­mer­at­ed by Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley.

What prompt­ed the de­ci­sion was the fact that a pro­hi­bi­tion on team sports is still in ef­fect un­der the so­cial dis­tanc­ing reg­u­la­tions im­posed by the gov­ern­ment in its three-phase plan an­nounced on May 10, to re­duce the lock­down im­posed in mid-March.

Fur­ther, the TTCB an­nounced that be­cause of the in­com­plete sta­tus of all na­tion­al crick­et com­pe­ti­tions, there will be no pro­mo­tions or de­mo­tions for this sea­son and that reg­is­tra­tion fees for the 2021 sea­son will be waived.

Gen­er­al sec­re­tary of the TTCB, Su­ru­j­dath Ma­habir said: "The TTCB was per­suad­ed to make these de­ci­sions in the best in­ter­est of crick­eters and the gen­er­al pub­lic in the face of the pan­dem­ic. Al­so tak­en in­to ac­count was the cur­rent state of grounds on which match­es are played as they are not pre­pared to host any crick­et in the near fu­ture even if the gov­ern­ment eas­es its COVID-19 re­stric­tions on team sports with­in the near fu­ture.

"The TTCB has re­ceived the sup­port of the To­ba­go Crick­et As­so­ci­a­tion, and the T&T Women's Crick­et As­so­ci­a­tion, who have al­so both de­cid­ed to halt their crick­et ac­tiv­i­ties for the re­main­der of the year.

"The TTCB is al­so call­ing on all mi­nor crick­et leagues af­fil­i­at­ed to the na­tion­al or­gan­i­sa­tion to im­me­di­ate­ly ter­mi­nate their com­pe­ti­tions in the best in­ter­est of pub­lic health and safe­ty."

The for­mer na­tion­al play­er added that there will be no win­ners crowned for the sea­son.

"There were still two rounds of match­es to go in the main com­pe­ti­tion, so we have de­cid­ed that there will be no win­ners this year. We are go­ing to just can­cel the crick­et and start afresh in Jan­u­ary, next year.

"There will be no pro­mo­tions and de­mo­tions so the line-up of teams for the 2021 crick­et sea­son will be the same as it was this sea­son. The on­ly dif­fer­ence be­ing one re­place­ment in Di­vi­sion II be­cause Table­land Unit­ed pulled out of the crick­et. We will look at the 2019 com­pe­ti­tion and the team that was next in line would come up to Di­vi­sion II."

He added that there will be no Un­der-17 In­ter­zone tour­na­ment as well, al­though Crick­et West In­dies (CWI) has not yet of­fi­cial­ly de­cid­ed against it.

"We are wait­ing on CWI but I think that since we nor­mal­ly host the U-17 tour­na­ment and we can­not play crick­et here, then they may call that off. The U-19 may be played be­cause of the up­com­ing U-19 World Cup. If that is the case, then we may have to arrange an U-19 In­ter­zone tour­na­ment or find some way to choose an U-19 na­tion­al team to take part in that tour­na­ment."