BVICA T20 Finals Set For May 21 – Royal Knights Out

The finals of the British Virgin Islands Cricket Association (BVICA) T20 Tournament will be held on Sunday, May 21 at the Greenland Cricket Ground, East End, Tortola.

The championship match will be played between Cavaliers and Vikings, while Under the Tree and Rising Stars will face off for third place.

Missing from the finals is the Royal Knights Cricket Club. The club publicly accused the BVICA of disregarding the rules of the tournament following the cancellation of the April 23 semi finals due to rain.

Royal Knights argued that the rules clearly state that if the semi finals are rained-out, the two teams with the most points will advance to the finals – Royal Knights vs Vikings topped their groups.

Royal Knights publicly declared that it was ready to play in the finals, but they were not included in the promotional materials.

According to Royal Knights, the “BVICA rules make no provision for the semi-finals to be replayed should the game be affected by weather. Instead, in the event of rain, the rules clearly state that the top teams in each group will advance to the finals. Once the BVICA became aware of the rules, they met with the four semi-final teams — Royal Knights, Cavaliers Cricket Club, Under The Tree and Vikings. At that meeting, the rules were upheld and the decision was made to play the finals Royal Knights and Vikings — the two top teams in each group.”

The matter was sent to the regional cricket body Leeward Islands Cricket Association (LICA) which acknowledged that the tournament rules for rained-out games are flawed but still recommended that the two semi-finals be played.

“Like the BVICA, LICA appears eager to give Cavaliers and to a lesser extent Under The Tree, another opportunity to play in the finals. Both the BVICA and LICA acknowledged that the rules for the tournament are flawed. Strangely, the BVICA expects Royal Knights to play the semi-final under the very rules that LICA and BVICA both agree are flawed,” the statement noted.