Tobago T10 Blast bowls off Friday

IN an effort to continue growing the sport of cricket in Tobago a one-week tournament would be held on the island called the Chief Secretary’s Bago T10 Cricket Blast at the Cyd Gray Sporting Complex in Roxborough, Tobago, starting on Friday.

President of the Tobago Cricket Association Kerwin John said the inaugural tournament is being held to promote cricket in Tobago.

“This will definitely give the sport a boost because of the anticipation that it got. The fact that we had a draft last week Tuesday to select the players even made it more exciting because everybody was anticipating being drafted.”

John wants the tournament to become an annual event.

The tournament will feature four franchises – Buccoo Divers, Rainforest Rangers, Ft King George Gunners and the Little Tobago Islanders.

John explained how the names of the teams were chosen.

“We try to use the tourism aspect. If you realise the name of all the franchises depicts a tourism site in Tobago.”

The Tobago House of Assembly is the title sponsor of the tournament.

The teams would only feature Tobago players. Jahron Alfred would captain Buccoo, former TT Red Force player Navin Stewart would lead the Rainforest outfit, West Indies Under-19 player Joshua James would be at the helm for Ft King George and Leron Lezama would guide Little Tobago.

The teams would battle for the first prize of $20,000.

Two matches will be played per day from Friday to July 29 starting at 5 pm and 7 pm. E

ach team would play each other twice in the preliminary round with the first place team advancing straight to the final.

The second and third-placed teams would face off for the other final spot in the eliminator on July 30 at 6 pm. The team finishing last after the preliminary phase would be eliminated.

On the day of the fina,l on July 31, an exhibition match would be played between the Chief Secretary XI and an All Star team at 5 pm featuring players from the two teams that did not qualify for the final. The Chief Secretary XI will include Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo, Darren Bravo, Nicholas Pooran, John and Chief Secretary Ancil Dennis, who would captain the team. The final bowls off at 7 pm.

St Vincent and St Lucia held T10 tournaments in their respective countries recently and John said this gave them the inspiration to hold a tournament in Tobago. No fans would be allowed to attend because of the covid19 pandemic. However, the matches would be shown live on Tobago Sports Live and Cricket 360 on Facebook.