T&T board calls for Twenty20 Championship

The Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB) has proposed a West Indies Twenty20 Championship at the end of the year, to help choose the best side in the region, who will then go onto represent West Indies in future editions of the Champions League Twenty20.

Deryck Murray, the TTCB president, said the board had approached the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and offered to host the tournament in Trinidad & Tobago, ahead of the regional first-class competition in mid-January next year.

"We have sent in a proposal to the WICB to stage the regional T20 cricket series in Trinidad and Tobago from December 27 this year," Murray told Caribbean Media Corporation. "We have sent in dates that would see the tournament concluded by January 10, 2010 and this would give them enough time to stage the regional first-class series from the middle of January."

T&T, who were the Caribbean representatives at the recently-concluded Champions League in India and finished runners-up, had qualified for the inaugural edition by winning the Stanford 20/20 series last year. But that tournament was discontinued after Allen Stanford was charged with fraud.

However, Murray said he was "awaiting word" from the West Indies board about the timing of the event and he expected a decision regarding the proposal to be taken at the WICB meeting on November 8.

"There have been discussions at the board level into staging a regional T20 series and they have agreed to do such," Murray said. "I guess they would have to enter into talks with prospective sponsors and would be looking at the feasibility of staging the tournament here.

"Whoever is the sponsor would be the key in determining where the tournament is played. If for example they get a sponsor from Jamaica then the tournament might most likely be played across there. If they get one from America, they may want it up there, so we just have to wait and see what happens."