The Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) All-island Spalding Cup cricket play-off between urban Grace Shied champions Eltham High and rural Grace Headley Cup champions St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS), which was slated to begin today and end on Friday at STETHS, has been postponed.

ISSA, the governing body for high school sports in Jamaica, made the decision to postpone the final indefinitely yesterday after a meeting of its executives to look into a complaint by Eltham regarding the match venue.

Decision taken

"A meeting was held and a decision was taken to postpone the match. ISSA will meet with the principals of both institutions on Friday to iron out differences and come to an amicable solution," said George Forbes, competitions officer, ISSA.

Eltham claimed that by allowing the match to be played at STETHS it would provide the home team with an unfair advantage.

"Our principal wrote a letter to ISSA outlining our concerns. However, up until today (yesterday) we have not gotten a response. We were supposed to hear from them on Monday but we did not. As a result, on a matter of principle, we have decided not to play STETHS on STETHS's ground, as this, we feel, puts us at a distinct disadvantage," said Oral Simpson, Eltham's coach.

They had requested that the game be played at a neutral venue. However, prior to yesterday's ruling ISSA had not responded.