He is full of praise for the concept.

However, Kirkland Bailey, cricket coach of Excelsior High School’s Under-19 team, wants future editions of the Tampa Youth Twenty20 (T20) Cricket Championship in Florida to be better organised than was the case at its inauguration last weekend.

Excelsior lost their first two games of the four-team, three-day tournament then forfeited the third on Saturday evening following a disagreement with organisers over fixture changes and what Bailey described as general disorganisation.

The Excelsior coach said he wanted to make it clear that Excelsior’s cricketers did not play up to the expected standard. He emphasised that he was making no excuses for their losses.

However, he said, he had an issue with fixtures which were changed “willy nilly” in what he believed was an attempt to facilitate one of the two home teams, and which he said would have seriously inconvenienced Excelsior High.

There were also other organisational challenges which he described as “unacceptable” and “non-negotiable”.

It was on that basis of all of those challenges that he decided to withdraw Excelsior from that final game against Assassins on Saturday evening, he said.

“I want to make it clear that I have no problem with the concept of the tournament, it’s a wonderful idea but the organisation was very poor… It has to be better going forward,” said Bailey.

Tacky High, the other Jamaican school in the tournament, were declared champions, after winning all their games up to the final against an academy team from the University of South Florida (USF). That final game on Sunday was ruined by rain.

Bailey said injuries to two players posed a major challenge for his team with one having to undergo emergency surgery in Florida. The player is in good spirits and recovering well, the Excelsior coach said.

— Garfield Myers