Jack is unfazed by decision

President of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Cricket Association Julian Jack believes that the decision made by his executive to include the News Spartans in the National Lotteries Authority Neil Williams T/20 Cricket was the correct one, granted their late entry, and accepts responsibility for the present situation.{{more}}

Jack made this known to SEARCHLIGHT last Sunday afternoon, at the Arnos Vale Playing Field.

“When we reviewed the circumstances why Spartans was not part of the competition, we realized that there was a mistake, as they would have paid, not necessarily before the deadline, but close enough so that they should be included in the competition,” Jack said.

“Part of our mandate is to promote Cricket in St Vincent and the Grenadines at all levels, and we don’t think it was good to leave out one of the premier teams out of the competition and therefore, the Executive took a decision, albeit not unanimous, to include them,” Jack stated.

When quizzed as to why it took so long to recognize that Spartans was not part of the competition, Jack stated: “The matter was not looked at carefully by everybody at the time, as not enough attention was paid to it, but when it came to our attention that they have paid their registration and they were preparing to play and they were not fixtured, and the fixtures had reached as far as quarter finals, we thought that would not have been fair to them.”

Accepting responsibility for the situation, Jack said, “Because we are running the competition, if anything goes wrong, we have to take the responsibility.”

Jack opined that with the inclusion of Spartans at this stage of the competition, it will be they who would be at a disadvantage, having to play almost six games on a trot, whilst others would have played theirs over three weekends.

Viewing the current flare up in the local Cricket fraternity as a family dispute, Jack reasoned, “Even in families there are disagreements from time to time.”

Spartans was scheduled to play three matches last weekend; however, on Saturday, they won by default against Smashers and Sunday morning, also gained a win, as Victors One made a no-show.

On Sunday afternoon at the Arnos Vale Two Playing Field, Eat Rite Saints defeated Spartans by seven wickets in their first action on the field.

The other teams in the group are Police Two, Bequia and Owia Stars. (RT)