Pollard, Bravo confirmed for Single Wicket
By ASHFORD JACKMAN Saturday, July 25 2015
EIGHT PROMINENT regional cricketers who played in this year’s Caribbean Premier League T20 tournament have confirmed their participation in the upcoming Glory TV Single-Wicket tournament. The event, now in its third year, is scheduled to be played off under lights at Guaracara Park in Point-a-Pierre next Wednesday (July 29).
The tournament pits individual players against each other in two- overs-per-player contests; when batting, a player is afforded a running partner; when bowling, he is given nine “neutral†outfielders and a wicketkeeper. A batsman is allowed to continue for up to two dismissals, but each time he is out, three runs are deducted from his score; on a third dismissal, his innings is over. The player who scores the most runs from his two overs is the winner.
Twelve players will compete in four preliminary groups in the competition, the draw for which was made at the Hasely Crawford Stadium yesterday. Andre Phillips, founder and president of the Single Wicket Cricket Foundation (SWCF) was confident fans would be thoroughly entertained in the one-night affair, given that many of them will be, as he described it, “at the peak of their game†immediately following the ongoing CPL tournament. Phillips said that Lendl Simmons, the 2014 champion withdrew from the competition after it was postponed from the original date (June 19); he explained that Simmons was fatigued, having been playing cricket nonstop since January when he was on West Indies duty at the ICC World Cup, and also because he had just recently been married.
Even so, Phillips foresaw a bumper crowd and exhilarating cricket.
“We will have a celebration of cricket with the gifted all-rounders that we know in the regional cricket game,†he told reporters. “We look forward to having a very solid turnout of fans in an arena which is more suited to the single-wicket format... and allows for very close interaction between players and spectators; and the lighting for night cricket is perhaps among the best in the country.â€
The seeded players were IPL/CPL stars Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard, Guyana’s Narsingh Deonarine and Navin Stewart, the Tobago-born all-rounder who earned his seeding on the basis of his outstanding record in previous editions of the tournament.
Phillips said over $60,000 in prizes will be at stake, with the winner taking home $40,000. There will be incentive prizes for the best bowler, best batsman, the highest score, the most sixes and the most catches.
The tournament is sponsored in part by Newsday, First Citizens Bank, Ramsingh’s Sports, the Metro Hotel and the SM Jaleel Group, with assistance from the Sports Company (SPORTT). Gates will be opened at 3pm and play starts at 4pm.
GROUP ONE - Navin Stewart (seeded), Jason Mohammed and Kevon Cooper.
GROUP TWO - Narsingh Deonarine (seeded), Imran Khan and a yet-to-be disclosed player
GROUP THREE - Dwayne Bravo (seeded), Evin Lewis and a yet-to-be disclosed player.
GROUP FOUR - Kieron Pollard (seeded), Rayad Emrit and Christopher Barnwell.
