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Final ODI & 1st Test switched to T&T due to civil unrest in Jamaica

May 27, 2010 Sports

The 5th and Final ODI and the first Test between West Indies and South Africa has been switched from Sabina Park in Jamaica to the Queens Park Oval in Trinidad due to civil unrest in parts of Jamaica’s Capitol which resulted in a one-month State of Emergency being declared for parts of Kingston by Prime Minister Bruce Golding last Sunday night.
The final ODI was scheduled for Jamaica on June 3 while the opening Test of the 3-match series was fixed to start on June 10.
This is the second switch of venue for the Digicel home series after national elections in Trinidad on Monday caused the two-match 20/20 series and the first 2 ODIs to be moved from the Twin Island Republic to Antigua.
Kaieteur Sports understands that the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) wanted to arrange for the first Test to be moved to Barbados and the final Test, which was scheduled for Barbados from June 26, be played in Jamaica.
However, a source in Jamaica informed this newspaper yesterday that the plan failed because of logistical considerations, including ticket sales and television broadcast arrangements.
“I have to tell you there are some major challenges, and there is no easy way around them,” JCA President Paul Campbell said yesterday morning.
Campbell, who arrived in Kingston yesterday from Fort Lauderdale, Florida where Jamaica was part of a cricket festival on the weekend, said a late night teleconference among West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) directors took place on Tuesday evening before the switch was announced yesterday.
After participating in the 4th and 5th ODIs in Dominica tomorrow and Sunday, both teams were scheduled to face off in the final ODI in Kingston on June 3. That game would have been followed by a practise match between the South Africans and a Jamaica team at Chedwin Park, St Catherine June 6-7 before the first Test began.
A State of Emergency limited to Kingston and St Andrew has been in place since Sunday, following the government’s decision to sign an extradition order for West Kingston ‘Don’ Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke, which triggered a heightening and widening of disorder.
Up to yesterday afternoon it was reported that 44 people had lost their lives in the violent clashes between the armed forces and supports of Dudus, who is referred to as ‘the President.
A WICB source informed Kaieteur Sports that among the major considerations that would have influenced the final decision was the word from the high command of Jamaica’s security forces to the WICB that as a result of the prevailing instability there could be no “guarantees”.
Campbell told Jamaica’s Observer newspaper on Tuesday night that among the “challenges” was that Barbados was already well advanced in arranging for the third Test, “including ticket sales”.
Additionally, he said, the proposal would probably not sit well with television broadcasters who would have to rearrange while Hillarie said that such arrangement would be based on the “risky” supposition that all would be back to normal in Jamaica by late June.
The St Lucian Hilaire said that last year’s gun attack on a bus carrying Sri Lankan cricketers in strife-torn Pakistan had made world cricket’s governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC) even more cautious as regards to the threat of terrorism. The 2nd Test is scheduled for St Kitts from June 18-22.
According to the WICB the 2-day warm-up match for South Africa scheduled for June 6-7 will be played at a venue to be announced in the coming days. (Sean Devers)

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