Trelawny option dismissed

Andre Lowe, Senior Staff Reporter

As the debate continues surrounding the West Indies Cricket Board's decision to move the West Indies/South Africa Digicel Cricket Series assignments from Sabina Park to the Queen's Park Oval in Trinidad and Tobago due to the unsettled situation in Jamaica, the local cricket boss sought to put things into perspective.

Paul Campbell, president of the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA), has had to face a mini-storm of sorts with many fans questioning whether or not the usage of the Trelawny Stadium on Jamaica's north coast would be a better solution, especially for the country's international cricket-starved fans.

Voices in several quarters suggested that the JCA should have asked that the game be played in Trelawny instead of Sabina Park, an area that was not affected by the unrest that had blanketed the Corporate Area, but Campbell argues that his administration was not willing to take that risk and that the under-used facility could not have been prepared in time for the June 3 start to the fifth one-day international between both teams.

"There was no way we could get Trelawny up to speed, anyway," said Campbell. "The decision was made last week Wednesday so we had just about seven days to get ready; so it was impossible to prepare a pitch at Trelawny within that period."

"There is additional stuff to be done there in terms of getting the other areas up to speed. Our preparation for Sabina Park for instance, started some five weeks ago. There seems to be a lack of understanding and appreciation for the whole planning process around international events of this kind," Campbell reasoned.

This is, however, just half of the problem. With Kingston breaking out into a war zone and the security forces suggesting that the event be moved off the island, Campbell maintained that he was not willing to go beyond the advise of the lawmen.

"We (JCA) got advice from the Jamaica Constabulary Force High Command (that the event be moved) and that they could not commit any resources to the event," said Campbell. "Their recommendation was based on their assessment of the situation that it would have been unwise to go on with the event. If we could not get a commitment from that level to satisfy our partners overseas and so forth, then how could we go to Trelawny?," Campbell asked.

"If the Police High Command indicated this, then on what basis were we then going to determine that we should go to Trelawny, and how were we going to satisfy the concerns from our international partners such as the International Cricket Council security directorate and the South African officials, as well as the visitors, and so on?" questioned Campbell.

"Should we have gone forward on the basis that we are taking a risk, without the assurance of the Police high command?" he continued. "We were not prepared to take that risk ..."

In an earlier interview with The Gleaner, Campbell said the association was set to lose several million dollars in potential revenue and cancellation fees that had to be paid over to service providers due to the last-minute venue shift.