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VICTORIOUS West Indies T20 captain Rovman Powell has made a plea to the Jamaica Government, saying that international and Caribbean Premier League (CPL) matches need to return to the country.
West Indies have not played in Jamaica in almost two years. The last time the regional team played at Sabina Park in Kingston was in January 2022 when West Indies played Ireland in a one-day match. It has been longer since Jamaicans have seen a CPL home match as 2019 was the last time Jamaica Tallawahs played at Sabina Park.
"I am a Jamaican and I want to play in front of my home crowd, but for the last few years I haven't," Powell told the media after West Indies won a five-match T20 series 3-2 over World champions England at Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba on Thursday.
Powell called for dialogue among all stakeholders. "West Indies Cricket Board (Cricket West Indies) and the Jamaica Government really have to sit down and have a conversation about that.
"Cricket has not played there for a long time...There are quite a few Jamaicans playing for West Indies now and no cricket has been there." Four Jamaicans were in the starting XI in the final T20 against England including Powell, Andre Russell, Oshane Thomas and Brandon King.
Powell said there have been rumours that the Tallawahs franchise will be removed from Jamaica. "Even if you look at the CPL team, I heard reports that they are looking to move the CPL team from Jamaica. Jamaica is the biggest island in the Caribbean, a proud nation, a proud cricketing nation and for those things to be happening it is a little bit disappointing."
It has been reported that a CPL franchise is expected to return to Antigua for the 2024 CPL. The Antigua Hawksbills played in the CPL for the first two editions of the tournament in 2013 and 2014.
In order to host matches during the CPL all countries are eligible to make a bid.
Jamaica, with a population of three million people, has produced many great West Indies players.
George Headley, Lawrence Rowe, Michael Holding, Jeffrey Dujon, Courtney Walsh, Patrick Patterson, Jerome Taylor, Marlon Samuels and Chris Gayle are among the Jamaicans who all had stellar careers for West Indies.
Powell is not the only person disappointed with the lack of cricket at Sabina Park. In an interview on the Mason and Guest Radio Show in June, former Jamaica and West Indies spinner Nehemiah Perry said, “It has been turned into a place of parties and football."
Football matches in the Jamaica Premier League are often played at Sabina Park, along with Secondary Schools football matches. Sabina Park is one of the oldest cricket grounds in the Caribbean, first hosting an international match almost 100 years ago. The first Test match played at Sabina Park was in 1930 between West Indies and England.
“I remember the days gone when we were talking about a Test series coming to the Caribbean; there were some grounds that you knew were going to get games like Sabina Park, Kensington Oval (Barbados), Queen’s Park Oval (Trinidad) etcetera," Perry said.
When a Test series was played in the Caribbean in the 1980s and 1990s, Jamaicans, Barbadians, Trinidadians, Guyanese and Antiguans could certainly look forward to seeing cricket played. Many other countries in the Caribbean have international cricket grounds now, so the traditional cricket venues in the region are no longer guaranteed matches. St Lucia, Grenada, Dominica and St Kitts/Nevis have all hosted international cricket regularly over the past decade.
The post Windies skipper disappointed: Why no cricket in Jamaica? appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.