AS the COVID-19 pandemic spreads across the globe national sports federations are forced to either cancel or postpone events with local federations having to face the same music.
Postponed is this weekend’s 40 over practice matches (Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th) at the Mindoo Phillip Park, the Gros Islet playing field and the Daren Sammy Cricket Ground.
THE VOICE spoke to the President of the SLNCA Carol Henry who said that “with this latest related COVID-19 development, it has definitely pegged us back. At present, there is a lot of uncertainty right now, so one cannot even start to even give an indication as to when we can hold the fiesta”.
“The drawback would definitely be significant in terms of trying to have cricket activities; it’s a repeat of what happened earlier in the year when COVID-19 emerged for the first time,” he said, adding that “it’s going to be very negative impacting the SLNCA and its cricket development.”
According to Carol, “This has been a big drawback, because on our revised calendar of events we were looking to do our Under-19 fiesta, the continuation and culmination of the national two day tournament and also to host a women’s tournament in early December”.
In June/July, the SLNCA hosted the inaugural Dream XI T10 tournament. The preliminary round of matches were played behind closed doors; leading to the semi finals and finals the SLNCA allowed a limited number of cricket fans to come in to take in the action at the DSCG under strict protocols rules.
Another federation, the Saint Lucia Rugby Football Union (SLRFU) is taking nothing for granted as they have followed suit to suspend all rugby related activities.
According to SLRFU secretary Kisha Edgar, due to the increase and latest news on the Covid-19 in Saint Lucia along with the following mandated protocols set for the island, the SLRFU will suspend all rugby training and other rugby related activities for the next two weeks, beginning this weekend.
Meanwhile, following on the heels of a successful one day drills and evaluation activity by the Saint Lucia National Cricket Association (SLNCA) held on Sunday 12th October at the Daren Sammy Cricket Ground (DSCG) a total of 71 young aspiring Under-19 cricketers took part that included national youth players from around Saint Lucia raging from as young as 12 years old.
The event took place under the watchful eyes of the following technical individuals of the SLNCA, national panel of selectors – Greg Avril, Keith Charlery, Warne Augustin and Clivus Jules; certified coaches including Alton Crafton and John Eugene. David Olivier of Dennery Cricket Coaching Programme and Germaine Alexander, Fitness Instructor with Cricket Coaching background.
