Cricket West Indies postpones its domestic tournaments due to coronavirus threat

In the wake of the rising Coronavirus threat, Cricket West Indies (CWI) has decided to suspend all the domestic tournaments and face-to-face group meetings for a minimum of 30 days, starting March 16.

Cricket West Indies acted on the advice of its Medical Advisory Committee (MCA) to suspend the final two rounds of the Women’s CMI Super 50 Cup in Guyana, Regional Under-15s Boys Championship in Antigua and the regional Under-19s Girls Championship in Trinidad.

“The health and safety of our players, officials, and staff, are of paramount importance to CWI and we have advised the Board of Directors to take proactive policy steps to decrease the growing risk of contamination and spread of the virus,” Dr. Israel Dowlat, Cricket West Indies Chief Medical Officer, was quoted as saying by india.com.

Meanwhile, Medical Advisory Committee chairman Dr. Donovan Bennett added that the move comes based on medical test practices and also as a precaution as even a small gathering of officials and spectators could be detrimental to the health in the wake of the rising coronavirus threat.

“We are acting based on medical best practice as well as in an abundance of caution. The ongoing gathering of even small groups of spectators, cricketers and match officials could pose a risk to some persons of contracting the virus and being stranded in quarantine in a non-resident country for a prolonged period. Clearly, this pandemic is still evolving, and we will continue to monitor the situation throughout the Caribbean,” Chairman of the MAC, Dr. Donovan Bennett, said.

CWI has also suspended its annual general meetings due to coronavirus

Apart from the domestic tournaments, several scheduled meetings of the CWI have been called-off and in case of an emergency, all the matters will be addressed via teleconference. The Board of Directors meeting and the Annual General Meeting are the two major events that have been postponed.

Meanwhile, Cricket West Indies has advised all the Territorial Boards as well as local cricket associations to adhere to the advice of their respective Ministries of Health. The current development is another addition to a long-standing list of tournaments that have been postponed in the wake of the Coronavirus threat.