Commissioner of Police (CoP) Gary Griffith chaired a security meeting of all stakeholders involved in the 2020 edition of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) T20 tournament, which bowls off on August 18 in Trinidad and Tobago.
T&T Commissioner of Police, Gary Griffith
The entire competition will be played there and it ends on September 10.
Saturday’s meeting was held at the Trinidad Hilton Hotel, where all six teams will be housed and which will be used as the tournament Bubble.
Among the stakeholders at the meeting were the Health Ministry, Heads of Police Divisions Port-of-Spain and Southern, the T&T Defence Force, the General Manager of the Hilton and his security personnel, and CPL security coordinators.
This meeting is on the heels of Prime Minister, Dr Keith Rowley’s announcement on Friday in which he assured the general public that the CPL will not affect T&T.
“The CPL games are quite different, that’s a bubble,” Prime Minister Rowley said at the Health Ministry press conference on Friday at the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann’s. “Everything that will go on around the CPL will go on in a bubble that does not interact with the local population.
“They will come into the country under the protocols of entry, all having tested negative before. When they come here, they are confined to the Hilton Hotel and that becomes a bubble for them. Then they will go to a venue to play the game where they will not interact with the population and so the CPL is a bubble that has nothing to do with what goes on in the country.”
CoP Griffith is advising the public that all measures are being put in place to ensure the health and safety of all local and international players.
In a news release Sunday, Griffith stated: “All teams will have to undergo a quarantine period of 14 days during which they will be monitored and tested by officials of the Ministry of Health. All teams will be staying under quarantine at the Hilton.”
Commissioner Griffith added that “…all teams will be kept in sanitised zones which are termed “bubbles””. He pointed out that fans and family members will not be allowed to visit training sessions, matches, or the hotel. No spectators will be allowed at the venues during the games.
The tournament, featuring the six franchise teams – the Barbados Tridents, Guyana Amazon Warriors, Jamaica Tallawahs, St Kitts and Nevis Patriots, St Lucia Zouks and Trinbago Knight Riders – will have matches at the Queen’s Park Oval, Port-of-Spain, and at the Brian Lara Academy, Tarouba, South Trinidad.
The Gold Commander for the CPL tournament is acting Assistant Commissioner Floris Hodge-Griffith.
So far, there are 173 positive cases in T&T with eight deaths as of Sunday.
PM Rowley also said that breaching of biosecurity protocols by players and staff will strictly not be tolerated.
“Don’t play you can come out from that protocol and decide to take a drink down the road or whatever, we’re not tolerating that. We’ve established very strict protocols.”
The opening match will be between the Trinbago Knight Riders and the Guyana Amazon Warriors at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy from 10:00h followed by the defending champions the Tridents against the Patriots from 17:30h. (Trinidad Guardian)
