President of the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) Calvin Hope has responded to to Cricket West Indies (CWI).
Hope spoke on Tuesday morning during a media conference to unveil the Barbados Pride team for the West Indies four-day first-class championship.
The longstanding administrator and attorney, who is also a Director of CWI, was addressing to a question from NATIONNEWS on whether Barbados would prefer to host matches in the four-day tournament and also international matches featuring the West Indies team.
It was disclosed by NATIONNEWS last week that there will be no regional cricket featuring Barbados Pride and no international cricket featuring West Indies at the historic venue this year.
Kensington Oval is the leading sporting arena in the region and despite the snub by CWI the island will take center stage later in the year when the Oval hosts the playoffs and finals of the Caribbean Premier League, the most exciting sporting event regionwide.
These matches will be played from Wednesday September 16 to Sunday September 20.
The Oval was the first venue to host international cricket in the region. The first Test match was between West Indies and England back in January 1930. Since then, it has staged 56 Test matches, 50 One-Day Internationals, and 35 T20 Internationals. It has also hosted three global finals – the 2007 Men’s Cricket World Cup, the 2010 Men’s and Women’s T20 World Cup; and the 2024 Men’s T20 World Cup, which was won by India and attracted a global audience of over one billion viewers.
