Guyana Harpy Eagles Four-Day matches shifted to Antigua

In a move that has sparked frustration within St. Vincent’s sporting administration, the highly anticipated Regional Four-Day Championship clash between defending champions Guyana Harpy Eagles and the Windward Islands Volcanoes has been relocated to Antigua.

The shift comes against the backdrop of “miscommunication” and venue scheduling conflicts that left St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) unable to host the three-game block, originally slated for April.

Speaking on the Barbadian radio programme Mason and Guest, SVG Sports Minister Kaschaka Cupid expressed bewilderment over how the hosting rights slipped through the cracks.

“I received a correspondence from the national sports council through the Windward Islands cricket board that we were scheduled to host three games back-to-back during the course of next month [April].

However, I would say there was some level of miscommunication between the Sports Council, the Ministry and Windward Islands cricket. So that is unfortunate that we are not in a position to host the games”, the Sport Minister stated recently on Barbadian radio programme Mason and Guest

He further indicated: “I believe there is a conflict with football, as well as there is an international football game due to be played around that time period and we are limited with the number of facilities.”

“We would have hosted the games” had there been no miscommunication, because “the information did not come to my desk.”

“During conversations recently, I found out that the games were relocated to Antigua”, the Minister stated.

The Minister highlighted a familiar foe for Caribbean sporting infrastructure: venue saturation, noting that the cricket window reportedly clashed with international football fixtures.

St. Vincent will host the USVI in the Women’s World Cup qualifiers on April 14.

This isn’t the first time SVG has missed out on major fixtures at the eleventh hour. Cupid drew parallels with a previous U-19 series against England and, more recently, a trimmed schedule for the West Indies Women vs Australia series, where a planned Test match and three ODIs were scrapped in favour of just three T20Is.

It is understood that due to the financial constraints, CWI has implemented a new three-match bilateral series format for this year’s Regional Four-Day Championship.

Additionally, Jamaica Scorpions will host Barbados Pride, and Leeward Islands Hurricanes host Trinidad and Tobago Red Force in Antigua.

After three bilateral matches, the team with the most points would advance to the final, while teams two and three would play off to determine who would advance to the final in Antigua.

The travelling teams are expected to depart on April 9, with round one set to commence on April 12.