The World Tens Series, set to start on Saturday at the National Sports Centre, has been pushed back by one day to avoid bad weather expected to be brought by Hurricane Epsilon.

The tournament, involving seven teams, will start this weekend, but a day later on Sunday because of the weather forecasts. Round one of league play will now be played on Sunday and Monday.

Hurricane Epsilon, which developed into a Category 3 storm yesterday, is expected to bring tropical storm-force winds to the island as early as today.

In anticipation of inclement weather, the organisers have taken the step to delay the start of the tournament to ensure the safety of the players, coaches, staff and spectators.

“Everyone has done an incredible amount of work to get to this point in launching the series that we felt the most sensible and correct decision is not to take any chances with Mother Nature,” said Jon Phelps, the World Tens Series chief executive.

“Bermuda has welcomed us all here and we cannot wait to get started, but safety and patience is the wisest course at this stage. We are looking forward to the storm passing Bermuda safely, and kicking off on Sunday morning.”

The organisers announced earlier on Monday that the tournament had been reduced from eight to seven teams with a team from South America pulling out over fears of travelling during the Covid-19 pandemic.

As a result, the format has been adjusted to a league format with each team playing each other twice.