Pres­i­dent of the T&T Crick­et Board (TTCB), Az­im Bas­sarath says that those who are op­posed to the board end­ing the na­tion­al league crick­et are do­ing so out of greed and self­ish­ness.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia Sports on Mon­day when asked to re­spond to the com­plaints from some lo­cal clubs be­ing un­hap­py with the fact that the board called off the do­mes­tic sea­son with two rounds of match­es to play Bas­sarath ex­plained that on May 13, due to the coro­n­avirus (COVID 19) pan­dem­ic, the TTCB de­cid­ed to can­cel all crick­et un­der its aus­pices. The T&TCB de­cid­ed to de­clare this year's tour­na­ments as null and void and to start the 2021 sea­son with the same team struc­ture in the dif­fer­ent leagues sim­i­lar to 2020.

The board is host­ing an over-40 and over-50 league and some clubs have been crit­i­ciz­ing the move say­ing that it is un­fair. In re­sponse Bas­sarath said: "We de­cid­ed at the time based on what was go­ing on with the COVID 19 pan­dem­ic that it was im­per­a­tive that we stop the league. We had a vote and 12 of the 14 peo­ple on the na­tion­al league com­mit­tee vot­ed to stop the league and end it there. We agreed at the point to start afresh next sea­son with all the clubs stay­ing in their re­spec­tive league. We de­cid­ed to crown no cham­pi­ons and al­low no de­mo­tions or pro­mo­tions. The few clubs who are mak­ing noise at the mo­ment are do­ing so out of self­ish­ness and greed."

He said: "Last year we were ap­proached by Mr Bert (Lam­bert Lee-Ahyen) to part­ner with him for the over-40 and over-50 leagues. This is the time of the year that these play­ers at this age group come out to play their crick­et. That time has come and we are al­low­ing them the op­por­tu­ni­ty to play. We have made it clear that there shall be no spec­ta­tors at the grounds dur­ing these match­es. The na­tion­al league is our biggest tour­na­ment and we could not take a chance by hav­ing these match­es played on pitch­es grounds that are not ready for crick­et. We have made a de­ci­sion and we are stand­ing by it."

Pres­i­dent of Marchin Pa­tri­ots Adri­an Ali hit back say­ing: "He (Bas­sarath) can sit in an of­fice and make these com­ments about greed and self­ish­ness. I don't think that is the sit­u­a­tion. He is not at the club lev­el to see the strug­gles to get spon­sors on board and all the hard work that goes on in hav­ing a club par­tic­i­pate at the na­tion­al league lev­el. We have spent over $100,000 in or­der to com­pete and now we have noth­ing to show for it. We were on top of the South Cham­pi­onship and would have got­ten a pro­mo­tion to the Pre­mier­ship. Now we have to restart with noth­ing but ex­pens­es still to take care of.

"They are just mak­ing ex­cus­es about the grounds. Most of the grounds in the coun­try are in good con­di­tion be­cause the Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion has been tak­ing care of them. The board should have act­ed bet­ter and al­lowed the sea­son to re-start and fin­ish."