Better days are in tore for Tobago's cricket as a historic moment occurred yesterday that is expected to boost their cricket fortunes moving forward.
Tobago's cricket will now be paired with St Vincent's cricket and several benefits will go to both islands. A memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed between St Vincent and the Grenadines Cricket Association president Dr Kishore Shallow and president of the Tobago Cricket Association (TCA) Kerwin John at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba, San Fernando on Thursday.
Dr Shallow, vice-president of Cricket West Indies (CWI) explained the benefits saying: "We would have tours done by teams from Tobago and reciprocal tours by teams from St Vincent. This would allow for players from both countries to get more cricket under their belts and this would lead to their development."
John in response said: "Tobago in the past has been starved of competitive cricket and having a Tobago team travel and play cricket in another country would help our players. We made an unofficial tour to St Vincent last year and it was very successful. Now this year a St Vincent Under-15 team will be coming to Tobago to play and we will then send a senior Tobago team to that country.
"Dr. Shallow has taken a keen interest in assisting us in Tobago and we are very happy for his help."
John added that there has been an application made for a Tobago team to play in the Windward Islands tournament. "We have asked Dr Shallow to see if he can assist us with playing in the Windward Islands tournament, as we used to do in the past. We are hoping to get back into that and he has promised to look into it."
Dr Shallow in response said it was a good move to have Tobago play in the Windward Islands competition and he will be looking at the possibility. He quickly added that if they play in the tournament it does not make them eligible to play for the Windwards.
"It will not make them eligible to play for the Windwards but what it will do is give them some good competitive cricket, which would assist their game."
Tobago plays as a Zone in the T&T Cricket Board (TTCB) set-up and there is no team from Tobago that plays in the top flight of local cricket.