SSCL announces postponement of all cricket

THE Secondary Schools Cricket League (SSCL) has announced that all cricket under their jurisdiction has been postponed immediately because of Covid19 .

A release from the general secretary of the SSCL Nigel Maraj said, “ I write to inform you that the SSCL has stopped all cricket related activities until further notice. This includes all national playoffs, Intercol T20 and zonal competitions as well as practice matches and training sessions until the appropriate clearances to resume our competitions have been given by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health.”

The release continued, “It has become necessary to halt all cricketing activities as a result of the Prime Minister’s statement to Parliament on Friday 13th March 2020 and the Government’s decision to close all schools for a period of one week in the first instance. As a responsible organisation, we must adhere to the advice of Government officials to practice ‘Social Distancing’ and limit non-essential mass gatherings. Furthermore, the members of the SSCL would like to urge all our partners in cricket to follow the protocols issued by the Government of the Republic of TT and other state agencies.

Public relations officer of the SSCL Amin Forgenie explained, “At this point in time, it is only a suspension of matches, there has been no talks about cancellations.”

Speaking as St Benedict`s manager, Forgenie said, “Coming off a big win against Fatima in our last league match it would have been good if we could have continued with this momentum going into the T20 tournament. However, the directive of the Government of TT is as such so we don’t have a choice but to stop playing cricket at this point in time.” He then added, “We have to remember these are student-athletes and they have exams to prepare for as well. We have to look at it, that the boys have an opportunity to put cricket aside for a couple of weeks and focus on their school work.”