By Akeem Greene
February 18, 2022 marked the end of Round Two of the Regional Four-Day Championship, and round three is scheduled to start until May 18, with the final three rounds being played in Trinidad and Tobago.
Cricket West Indies Chief Executive Officer, Johnny Grave, indicated that apart from hosting England for three Tests just after the second round, the gap was created with the hope of a better COVID-19 situation in the Caribbean to contest the final stage of the Championship.
The English series started with a tour match in Antigua on March 1 and the third Test ended on March 27 in Grenada, but Grave indicated the logistics made it difficult to even host the four-day and Tests concurrently.
They are now optimistic of relaxed measures by May.
“We had the warm-up game against England as well as the Test match preparation so that would have pulled 30 players out of the system and what we wanted to do was make sure we were not overly ambitious, so we had the two rounds to start with and it was an enormous medical operation to get all the teams into Barbados and Trinidad safely and to play those two rounds, and so we paused for the Test matches,” he related to News Room Sport in a recent interview in Barbados.
The CEO added: “We will restart after April and hope that they will be fewer restrictions, more regional flights so the logistics and risks should be lower and we can have the final three rounds and that warm-up game against Bangladesh leading into the Test series.”
The West Indies Championship returns with matches being played at the Queen’s Park Oval, Brian Lara Cricket Academy, and the Diego Martin Sporting Complex.
The third round will run from May 18-21, the fourth from May 25-28, with the fifth and final round from June 1-4.
Defending champions Barbados Pride lead the points table with 42 points, with Trinidad and Tobago Red Force second on 38.6 points – both recorded wins in their first two matches.
They are followed by Leeward Islands Hurricanes on 24.6 points, Guyana Harpy Eagles on 21.4 points, Windward Islands Hurricanes on 10.8 points, and Jamaica Scorpions on 8.8 points.
