Vin­ode Mam­chan

T&T crick­et team has been in­vit­ed to par­tic­i­pate in the Sri Lankan T20 Pre­mier league but this coun­try may not take up the of­fer. A source close to the sit­u­a­tion said the of­fer was made "a while now" and was still open. The T&T Crick­et Board (TTCB) is ex­pect­ed to look in­to it and make a de­ci­sion be­fore the next do­mes­tic sea­son in Sri Lan­ka next Ju­ly.

Ac­cord­ing to the source: "At the last Cham­pi­ons League in In­dia, ex­ec­u­tive mem­ber of the TTCB, Bal­dath Ma­habir ac­com­pa­nied the team in the ca­pac­i­ty of busi­ness de­vel­op­ment man­ag­er and made a lot of valu­able con­tacts. "He was about the place look­ing for op­por­tu­ni­ties for T&T's crick­et and met with a lot of peo­ple. T&T has a unique op­por­tu­ni­ty by go­ing out there in­to the world and it is good to see that the board is tak­ing up the op­por­tu­ni­ties."

If T&T de­cides to play in the Sri Lankan Pre­mier league and wins, it would not qual­i­fy them for the Cham­pi­ons League. In­stead, it would be the sec­ond-placed Sri Lankan team which would move on to the Cham­pi­ons League. It is a sim­i­lar sit­u­a­tion that hap­pens here in the West In­dies, when Eng­lish teams, as well as Hol­land have been vis­it­ing but can­not qual­i­fy for the Cham­pi­ons League by win­ning the West In­dies tour­na­ment, they have to win their own .

T&T would have to win the West In­dies tour­na­ment to move on to the Cham­pi­ons league, even if they play out­side of the re­gion. The source con­tin­ued: "There is a sit­u­a­tion where a club cham­pi­onship will be tak­ing place in the re­gion soon. The WICB will then have to de­cid­ed if they are keep­ing the re­gion­al T20 and if they are, who will qual­i­fy for the Cham­pi­ons League, the coun­tries or the clubs."