The North Zonal Council held its first virtual club meeting on Thursday 4 June in an attempt to appraise clubs of the way forward in the midst of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
The meeting was a huge success as 8 of the 12 clubs joined the virtual meeting. The meeting was hosted by Chairman Winston Sobers along with other executive members Vice Chairman Gregory Wales and Treasurer Mahabir Ragoonanan. North Zonal Coordinator John Barkley also attended the meeting.
Since the announcement by the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board officially abandoning all cricket competitions under their control for 2020, clubs in the zone have agreed to focus on the upcoming 2021 season and how the current situation will impact the game at their level.
The TTCB has indicated through its President, Azim Bassarath, that a document outlining how the cricket fraternity functions, due to the pandemic, will be developed and distributed to all stakeholders.
One of the first initiatives announced at the meeting, that is intended to ease the expected hardship of clubs in the coming season, is the waiver of application and player registration fees for the 2021 season. Clubs would be allowed to recruit the same number of players from the 2020 season at no expense.
The zone, through its Secretary Amara Felix-Toussaint, has also initiated a Google Classroom to help clubs further develop. Tutorials on the scoring platform CricHq, financial tutorials and social media tutorials are just some of the material that would be available to the clubs.
Winston Sobers has indicated that there must be an “All Clubs on Deck” approach to get through this difficult period in our history and the safety of all our stakeholders is paramount. While sponsorships may diminish, Sobers has asked the clubs and its members to support the fund raising efforts of the zone which will help mitigate the fallout from reduced revenue.
While the recent update by the government indicated that there may be a resumption of team sports on June 22, most clubs weren’t too keen to rush back to the playing fields without an update on COVID-19 playing conditions and regulations approved by the Ministry of Health and the TTCB.
Very good initiative.