Finally, after two months of a gap, cricket lovers have got a happy piece of news. St Vincent and Grenadines Cricket Association (SVGCA) is set to organise the Vincy Premier T10 League (VPL 2020) later this month. The T10 league will be played in the eastern Caribbean island country of St Vincent and Grenadines.
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, this will be the first tournament or competitive series since March when the lockdown was announced. The tourney will follow all the safety guidelines to curb the spread of the virus.
Vincy Premier T10 League 2020: 10-day tournament
Six teams will participate in the tournament which will be played from May 22-31. Also, 72 players have been drafted to feature, including international players, especially from the West Indies. Some of them are Kesrick Williams, Sunil Ambris and Obed McCoy.
It will be a 30 match tournament to be played at the Arnos Vale Sporting Complex in St Vincent. Three games will be played in a day, and all of them will be streamed live.
“It is an exciting time for cricket in SVG, I can feel the buzz of sports enthusiasts who are thirsty for some cricket and sports,” Dr. Kishore Shallow, vice-president at Cricket West Indies (CWI, was.quoted as saying in CricketNews.com.
“We came up with this T10 franchise format because of the absence of sports content at this point, and thought that this brand of cricket would be enticing to cricket fans across the globe in a short duration. The competition will be over a 10-day period, and all 30 matches will be streamed live,” said Dr Kishore Shallow.
No use of saliva or sweat during Vincy Premier T10 League:
Saliva and sweat are the natural substances that are used by players to shine the ball. But now, these natural substances have turned as the medium to transfer the virus. So, there is a lot of debate going on in the cricket fraternity over the use of natural or artificial substances on the ball during international and league-level competitions.
Well, the Cricket West Indies (CWI) has strictly disagreed with using saliva or sweat in the VPL 2020. While further, players will have to follow social distancing during training and matches.
“No player would be allowed to use any saliva on the ball,” he said. “Of course, we will be having different dedicated, assigned spaces around the players’ pavilion for teams so that they are not necessarily crowded together. All teams would have their own space where they could practise physical distancing,” Dr. Shallow added.
The league will surely entertain cricket fanatics when an upsetting situation surrounds the world. Also, it will set examples for other boards to how to set up matches amid the deadly virus.