2014 West Indies Cricket Board Under-19 Regional One-day Competition

An ICC Americas team is to participate in the 2014 West Indies Cricket Board Under-19 Regional One-day competition that takes place in Guyana during the early part of August. The schedule for this year’s tournament was recently released by the West Indies Cricket Board.

The WICB has an Under-19 three day games tournament that features the six teams from the Caribbean region and begins this coming Tuesday (July 22, 2014). ICC Americas is not included in that three-day competition, but enters the cricketing arena on August 4, the opening day of the One-day competition, against Trinidad and Tobago at the Demerara Cricket Club.

The West Indies regional teams will have the benefit of having played together in the three-day tournament which can add to the challenge for those playing in the ICC Americas team. But such challenges often have to be overcome in the mix between cricket in ICC Full member countries and the game within ICC Associate and Affiliate countries. Indeed, the challenge can be greater in ICC global competitions as the six West Indies regional teams are joined as one in ICC World Cups involving 50-over and 20-over games.

Should cricket be included in a future Pan-Am games or return to the Commonwealth Games then the West Indies “big four” of Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago would play as separate countries. The Windward and Leeward Islands composite sides would split into whichever countries decided to participate as single-entities.

Those who would like to see cricket restored to the Olympic Games after a gap of over 100 years might realize that a country such as Canada would be almost certainly be required to participate in a qualifying competition. So there would be work needed on the playing field before the magical entry of a Canadian cricket team into the glare of an actual Olympiad.

Significant work would also be required beyond the boundary by global and local cricketing administrators together with those at the helm of the Olympic movement.

Cricket was included in one Commonwealth Games, the 1998 edition in Malaysia. Canada participated but lost to Australia, India, and Antigua & Barbuda.

If some of those involved in snow cricket in Canada could make a strong case for the inclusion of snow cricket into the winter Olympics then Canada might have an edge over some of the ICC Full Member countries.

The traditional “big four” in West Indies regional cricket do not have very large populations but have produced many excellent cricketers. Jamaica won both the 3-day and one-day WICB Under-19 tournaments in 2013. It will be interesting to see how the ICC Americas team performs this year. Thanks should go to the WICB for providing the opportunity for the ICC Americas team to play in the one-day tournament, and to ICC Americas for their efforts in bringing together the players and support staff from the region that extends from the Arctic to the Antarctic.

Schedule

August 4: ICC Americas vs Trinidad & Tobago at Demerara Cricket Club; Barbados vs Jamaica at Bourda Oval; Guyana vs
Leeward Islands at Enmore. Bye: Windward Islands.
August 5: Windward Islands vs Barbados at Demerara Cricket Club; Guyana vs ICC Americas at Bourda Oval; Jamaica vs Leeward Islands at Wales; Bye: Trinidad & Tobago.
August 7: Guyana vs Trinidad & Tobago at Eve Leary; Leeward Islands vs Windward Islands at Enmore; Jamaica vs ICC Americas at Everest; Bye: Barbados.
August 9: Leeward Islands vs Barbados at Everest, Trinidad & Tobago vs Jamaica at Eve Leary; ICC Americas vs Windward Islands at Wales. Bye: Guyana.
August 10: Guyana vs Jamaica at Bourda Oval; Barbados vs ICC Americas at Demerara Cricket Club; Windward Islands vs Trinidad & Tobago at Enmore; Bye: Leeward Islands.
August 12: ICC Americas vs Leeward Islands at the National Stadium; Guyana vs Windward Islands at Albion; Trinidad & Tobago vs Barbados at Everest; Bye: Jamaica bye.
August 13: Windward Islands vs Jamaica at Eve Leary; Leeward Islands vs Trinidad & Tobago at Demerara Cricket Club; Guyana vs Barbados at National Stadium; ICC America bye.
August 15: The Final

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