Thu | Apr 9, 2026

SDC T20 returns this weekend

Published:Thursday | May 20, 2021 | 12:14 AMRobert Bailey/Gleaner Writer
Gayle Cricket Club’s Allando Robinson plays a shot during the final of the SDC/Wray and Nephew National Community T20 Championships against Orange Hill at the Noranda Bauxite Company Port Rhoades Sports Complex in 2019. Gayle won by four wickets.
Shorn Hector
Gayle Cricket Club’s Allando Robinson plays a shot during the final of the SDC/Wray and Nephew National Community T20 Championships against Orange Hill at the Noranda Bauxite Company Port Rhoades Sports Complex in 2019. Gayle won by four wickets.

The much-anticipated start of the Social Development Commission (SDC) National Community Twenty20 Competition is scheduled to bowl off this weekend with a full slate of matches in the rally phase of the championships across selected venues.

SDC’s Executive Director Dr Dwayne Vernon said as part of the COVID-19 protocols, which they have agreed with the Government, no spectators will be allowed inside the venues.

The competition will be making a return to the local cricket calendar after last year’s tournament was cancelled because of the pandemic.

Vernon underscored that the teams in the championships are looking forward to the competition and are desperate to return to the field.

“We have the permission to host our competition, and so we have done the necessary work with the department of health in the various parishes where we would have looked at the venues and ensure the venues are in a state that we can safely observe all the protocols,” said Vernon.

“We are very happy that we are going to be able to get back on the field because communities really need to be engaged again through sports, and so I am very happy that the Ministry of Local Government, working with the Ministry of Health, has given us the go-ahead to start this competition,” he added.

NO SPECTATORS

Vernon noted that over 200 teams have registered to participate in this year’s championships but is urging spectators to stay away from the matches because they will not be allowed inside the venue.

“The teams have been sensitised with the protocols and rules of the competition, and they are ready to go because they have been waiting a long time for this, and I know that they are very anxious to get back on to the field of play,” Vernon said.

“It will be without spectators for this phase, and so we will monitor the measures that have been set out by the Government, and we will work in tandem with those measures,” he said.

Gayle Cricket Club from St Mary are the defending champions of the championships, having captured the title in 2019.