Under-19s in Red Stripe Bowl

KINGSTON: The 2003 Red Stripe Bowl limited overs regional cricket tournament was launched on Wednesday with the confirmation that the West Indies Under-19s will be among the participating teams.

The West Indies Under-19s, picked from last month's TCL Group youth tournament in Guyana, will be the only newcomers in this year's seventh staging of the Red Stripe Bowl competition from October 1-19. The young Windies replace last year's Windwards champions, St Vincent and the Grenadines, in the 10-team tournament. Partial details of this year's competition were announced at a press conference at the home of the sponsors, Red Stripe, on Wednesday. In Zone "A", which will be contested here in Jamaica, the teams competing for semi-final places are Trinidad and Tobago, Canada, the Windward Islands, the Leewards XI and Jamaica.

In Zone "B", which will be hosted by Antigua, the participating teams are defending champions, Barbados, Guyana, the — yet to be decided — champions of the Leeward Islands competition, the University XI, and West Indies Under-19s. There was no declaration of prize money and match incentives and it is unclear if there will be a change to the winning prize of US $10,000 Barbados collected last year. In its continued efforts to spread the sport to new venues, Red Stripe, in association with the WICB and the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA), identified nine venues locally, the newest being Jamalco. The others are the UWI, Mona, Kensington, Alpart, Chedwin Park, Port Esquivel, Melbourne, Sabina Park and Kaiser, which will host the semi-finals on October 16 and 17 and the final on October 19. The following day is set as a reserve day.

In Antigua, all 10 matches will be played at the Antigua Recreation Ground (ARG) and Roger Brathwaite has noted that the curators will prepare five pitches, which will be used on a rotational basis.

Zone "A" — Jamaica
Oct 1 — TT vs Leewards XI at UWI XI
Oct 2 — Canada vs Windwards at Jamalco
Oct 3 — Jamaica vs Leewards XI at Kensington
Oct 4 — TT vs Canada at ALPART
Oct 5 — Jamaica vs Windwards at ALPART
Oct 6 — Rest Day
Oct 7 — Windwards vs Leewards XI at Chedwin Park
Oct 8 — Jamaica vs Canada at Port Esquivel
Oct 9 — TT vs Windwards at Kensington
Oct 10 — Rest Day
Oct 11 — Canada vs Leewards XI at Melbourne
Oct 12 — Jamaica vs TT at Sabina Park
Zone "B" — Antigua
Oct 1 — Guyana vs WI U19 at ARG
 Oct 2 — Barbados vs University XI at ARG
Oct 3 — Leewards Champion vs WI U19 at ARG
Oct 4 — Guyana vs University XI at ARG
Oct 5 — Leewards Champion vs Barbados at ARG
Oct 6 — Rest Day
Oct 7 — University XI vs WI U19 at ARG
Oct 8 — Barbados vs Guyana at ARG
Oct 9 — Leewards Champion vs University XI at ARG
Oct 10 — Rest Day
Oct 11 — Barbados vs WI U19 at ARG
Oct 12 — Leewards Champion vs Guyana at ARG
NB: Winner and Runners-up travel to Jamaica
Oct 16 — Zone "A" winner vs Zone "B" runner-up at Kaiser
Oct 17 — Zone "B" winner vs Zone "A" runner-up at Kaiser
Oct 18 — Rest and Practice
Oct 19 — Final at Kaiser
Oct 20 — Reserve day