PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – Regional players return to the field for the first time in this New Year, when the NAGICO Super50 Tournament opens on Thursday in St. Kitts and here.
Trinidad & Tobago Red Force will open their defence against long-standing rivals Jamaica Scorpions at Queen’s Park Oval in a match televised on ESPN Caribbean, after Barbados Pride and ICC Americas get the ball rolling at UWI SPEC, a few miles east of the T&T capital.
Up the island chain, Leeward Islands Hurricanes host the Combined Campuses & Colleges Marooners at Warner Park in St. Kitts, where Guyana Jaguars, last season’s beaten finalists, tackle Windward Islands Volcanoes in the rural village of St. Paul’s.
The Jaguars have been installed as the tournament favourites based on the available resources and the way they have been playing in senior regional competitions over the last two seasons.
The Red Force however, will want to put their weak 4-Day form behind them, and hope that familiarity with conditions and home support will again breed success for them in this version of the game.
All of the other four territorial franchises – Hurricanes, Pride, Scorpions and Volcanoes – have the talent to create ripples when it’s their day, but they will all be looking for consistency throughout to help them get the job done.
The Marooners have a penchant for springing surprises and will be looking to continue their giant-killing acts from previous tournaments.
The Americas, a pre-selected group of the best players in the Western Hemisphere outside of the WICB territories, plus eight players that advanced from a player combine held last November in the American city of Indianapolis, are an unknown force and are likely to be the cliché “banana peel” for one of the Caribbean sides.
The preliminary competition of the Tournament will be played under a non-elimination format with the eight teams equally divided into two groups. Each side is carded to play six matches apiece during the preliminary rounds, with each playing the others in their group twice.
The top two teams from each group advance to the semi-finals at Queen’s Park Oval, where the group winners play the runners-up from the opposite group in a one-off match for a place in the Grand Final on Sunday, January 24, at the same venue.
This equals a total of 27 matches for the biggest, senior regional domestic 50 overs-a-side tournament ever staged by the WICB.
Last season, a purposeful hundred from Jason Mohammed and Sunil Narine’s guile combined to catapult the Red Force to the title over the Jaguars with a comprehensive 135-run victory in a lopsided Grand Final before a sea of masquerading red-clad fans at Queen’s Park Oval.
Thursday, January 7
Red Force vs Scorpions – Queen’s Park Oval, Trinidad (1:30 pm, ESPN Caribbean)
Pride vs Americas – UWI SPEC, Trinidad (9 am)
Jaguars vs Volcanoes – St. Paul’s, St. Kitts (9 am)
Hurricanes vs Marooners – Warner Park, St. Kitts (1:30 pm)
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