KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – The new-look WICB regional four-day championship begins here today with champions Jamaica meeting last year’s runners-up the Windward Islands at Chedwin Park in one of three opening round matches.
In other first round matches being played in this north Caribbean island, the Leeward Islands and Barbados meet in the western tourist city of Montego Bay, while the highly fancied Trinidad & Tobago side will face off with the Combined Campuses & Colleges at Kensington Park, in the eastern section of the capital.
Jamaica will start slight favourites to get the better of their opponents in the seven-round competition, shortened from last year’s home and away tournament due to the West Indies Cricket Board’s financial constraints.
Three matches per round will be played in one territory, with the team accumulating the most points being declared the winner.
In the Chedwin Park meeting in St Catherine, on the outskirts of the capital, Jamaica’s captain Tamar Lambert has indicated that his team will depend heavily on spin to get the opposition out twice and set the team up for the perfect start.
“Our strength lies in our bowling and we expect the spinners to continue the trend that they have established over the years,” Lambert said in obvious reference to the selections of wrist spinner and St Catherine club mate Odean Brown, as well as West Indies left-arm orthodox spinner Nikita Miller.
“They beat us in Jamaica last year and we beat them in the Windwards, so it should be a good match,” Lambert said.
Jamaica will also go into the match with a balanced batting line-up of Xavier Marshall, Donovan Pagan, Wavell Hinds and Brendan Nash – all with West Indies experience – and Lambert himself.
Apart from the spinners, also have pacers Andrew Richardson and Jason Dawes, along with all-rounder David Bernard Jr and Shawn Findlay from which to choose.
New Windwards captain Darren Sammy is optimistic that his team will get off to a flying start, boasting the experienced opener Devon Smith, the improving wicketkeeper/ batsman Andre Fletcher and the experienced spinning all-rounder and former captain Rawl Lewis.
“I expect our team to improve over last year’s performance,” said Sammy, who will also have batsman and part-time spinner Liam Sebastien, off-spinner Shane Shillingford and pacer Nelon Pascal at his disposal.
“We have a balanced team and we are anxious to perform,” the 26-year-old all-rounder added.
The weather could intervene in the Leewards-Barbados clash, as the Jarrett Park venue has seen intermittent rain for most of the week.
Despite that, both teams are nicely balanced, although Barbados may have the slight edge in the fast bowling department.
Leewards’ captain Steve Liburd is well aware of the ability of Bajan pacers – young West Indies sensation Kemar Roach, Pedro Collins and Tino Best – but insists that his charges are up to the challenge.
“Roach has been the quickest bowler in the region since he came on the scene,” Liburd told journalists on arrival here Tuesday.
“The Leewards batsmen are accustomed to facing fast bowling, so it does not matter much to us.”
Prolific batsman Runako Morton is expected to score the bulk of the runs for the Leewards, with support coming from Liburd, Tonito Willett, Wilden Cornwall, Kieran Powell and Omari Banks.
The Leewards are also well served in the bowling department with West Indies pacer, Antiguan Gavin Tonge leading the attack that also has fellow West Indies pacer Lionel Baker and spinners Justin Athanaze and Anthony Martin in the line-up.
Barbados captain, all-rounder Ryan Hinds also has a steady batting assembly, with Dale Richards, Rashidi Boucher, and Jason Haynes capable of big scores.
“We have a very capable team and we expect to do very well this season,” Hinds told reporters here.
Trinidad & Tobago are favoured to have the advantage over the Combined Colleges & Campuses.
Captain Daren Ganga told reporters here that his team was looking to go all the way.
“We are obviously looking to win the championship and we have the players who can make that happen,” Ganga said.
Trinidad & Tobago will be without the effervescent opener Adrian Barath and promising middle-order batsman Darren Bravo, but Ganga, the experienced Dave Mohamed, Lendl Simmons, Ravi Rampaul, Denesh Ramdin, Rayed Emrit, Richard Kelly and Amit Jaggernauth should be too tough and all-round, for the students of the game, who will be led by former Barbados and West Indies left-handed batsman Floyd Reifer.
“We are confident that we have a good group of players who will get the job done,” said 38-year-old Reifer, who captained West Indies during the contracts impasse last year.
The CCC squad comprises nine Barbadian nationals and could be a handful if they get off to a bright start.
Apart from Reifer, batsman Omar Phillips and wicketkeeper/batsman Chadwick Walton have already played Test cricket, after debuting against Bangladesh in the Caribbean last year.
