The Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB) Premiership I National League title will be decided at Invaders Ground in Felicity on May 17 and 18 when top-of-the-table and defending champions Central Sports play host to their closest rival and potential trophy contenders Bess Motors Marchin Patriots, from 9 am.
The two-day, final round fixture features the league’s top two teams chasing the coveted 2025 crown, and is being dubbed the “central derby” since both teams hail from the same zone.
Central Sports, 2024 winners, lead the ten-team standings with 160 points while Patriots are in runner-up spot on 139 points.
In order for them to spoil Central Sports’ anticipated celebrations, Patriots must secure an outright win and ensure the reigning champions do not earn any batting or bowling points throughout the match.
It will be a tough task for last year’s 50-over champions Patriots, since Central Sports have given reassurance that they intend to retain the league title over their zonal rivals.
Both teams dominated the 2024 season with Central Sports capturing the league and T20 crowns while Patriots powered to victory in the 50-over format in their maiden season.
Third-placed Clarke Road United (114 pts) can usurp Patriots into second position if they also pull off an outright win against a struggling Preysal Sports outfit at Inshan Ali Park in Preysal.
Clarke Road, however, can only achieve that feat if Central Sports curb Patriots from earning any points during their contest. Preysal (79 points) are currently eighth.
Fourth-placed Powergen (97) need a big win over ninth-ranked Merry Boys (58) to possibly climb into the top three, but would have to bank on the results of other matches to increase their chances of a top-three finish. Their match bowls off in Diego Martin.
Fifth-placed Queen’s Park Cricket Club (91) travel to Cunjal Recreation Ground to take on league debutants and seventh-placed Yorkshire (84), while sixth-placed Victoria United, also on 84 points, remain hopeful for a positive result at home in Barrackpore against cellar-placed Prisons (57).
Luckily for the two lowest ranked teams neither would be relegated to the championship division after the final round of matches. Additionally, the championship winner and runner-up this season, will not be promoted to the top flight.
In January, TTCB first vice-president Arjoon Ramlal said the decision to allow a two-year cycle for promotion and demotion was made to help teams, particularly the weaker ones, get more time to acclimatise to the top-flight and elite-level competition.
The board’s intention is for teams to use this season as a developmental year where clubs could play some younger and aspiring players, since the evidence shows that championship clubs that get promoted, more often than not, are more likely to get demoted at the end of that season.
TTCB believes the newly-promoted clubs are not able to settle in and get accustomed to the higher division of cricket and have chosen to now give them more playing time, to gain
