West Indies Four-Day Championship to resume on May 18

Cricket West Indies (CWI) on Tuesday announced the West Indies Championship 2022 will resume on Wednesday, May 18. CWI unveiled the match schedule for the final three rounds of the Four-Day First-Class red ball tournament for the six professional regional franchises.

The first and second rounds were played in February ahead of the Apex Test Series, which concluded on Sunday with West Indies beating England 1-0 to win the newly-minted Richards-Botham trophy.

The West Indies Championship returns with all matches being played in Trinidad at the Queen’s Park Oval, Brian Lara Cricket Academy and the Diego Martin Sporting Complex. The third round will run from May 18-21, the fourth from May 25-28, with the fifth and final round from June 1-4.

Defending champions Barbados Pride lead the points table with 42 points, with Trinidad and Tobago Red Force second on 38.6 points – both recorded wins in their first two matches.

They are followed by Leeward Islands Hurricanes on 24.6 points, Guyana Harpy Eagles on 21.4 points, Windward Islands Hurricanes on 10.8 points, and Jamaica Scorpions on 8.8 points.

The teams will be competing for the Headley Weekes Trophy named in honour of West Indies legends George Headley and Sir Everton Weekes.

The current top two teams face each other in Round Four at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy with the chasing four teams aiming to win their games in Round Three of the West Indies Championship to close the points gap ahead of the concluding matches.

Jimmy Adams, CWI’s Director of Cricket welcomed the return of the four-day format and reiterated this competition plays a critical role in the player-development pathway.

Adams said: “The resumption of the West Indies Championship, our regional four-day competition, has been good to see. While we cannot recover the two years lost to the COVID-19 pandemic, we can now re-start critical aspects of our development pathway that depended on this tournament. I’m especially pleased for all the players and support staff that have had to put their own development on hold during the enforced break.”

For the ongoing tournament, each squad will consist of 15 players due to the COVID-19 pandemic. CWI is also implementing a special “player loan” system to try to ensure that each team will be able to complete their fixtures. If a team has a player(s) ruled out due to a positive COVID-19 result, they can request to use a player(s) from another team and/or from a pool of locally registered reserve players.

LIVE ball-by-ball scoring of each game will be available through the www.windiescricket.com match centre. CWI will be streaming each of the matches with commentary via the Windies cricket YouTube channels.

The Championship will also be streamed live in India on FanCode, as part of CWI’s partnership with the Indian broadcaster.

FULL MATCH SCHEDULE

COMPLETED

Round 1 – February 9-12

Barbados Pride beat Leeward Island Hurricanes by 4 wickets at Kensington Oval

Guyana Harpy Eagles beat Windward Islands Volcanoes by 1 wicket at Queen’s Park Oval

Trinidad and Tobago Red Force beat Jamaica Scorpions by 3 wickets at Brian Lara Cricket Academy

Round 2 – February 15-18

Barbados Pride beat Jamaica Scorpions by 10 wickets at Kensington Oval

Leeward Island Hurricanes beat Guyana Harpy Eagles by an innings and 57 runs at Queen’s Park Oval

Trinidad and Tobago Red Force beat Windward Islands Volcanoes by an innings and 43 runs at Brian Lara Cricket Academy

TO BE PLAYED

Round 3 – May 18-21

Guyana Harpy Eagles v Barbados Pride at Queen’s Park Oval

Trinidad and Tobago Red Force v Leeward Island Hurricanes at Diego Martin

Jamaica Scorpions v Windward Islands Volcanoes at Brian Lara Cricket Academy

Round 4 – May 25-28

Trinidad and Tobago Red Force v Barbados Pride at Brian Lara Cricket Academy

Windward Islands Volcanoes v Leeward Island Hurricanes at Queen’s Park Oval

Jamaica Scorpions v Guyana Harpy Eagles at Diego Martin

Round 5 – June 1-4

Windward Islands Volcanoes v Barbados Pride at Diego Martin

Trinidad and Tobago Red Force v Guyana Harpy Eagles at Queen’s Park Oval

Leeward Island Hurricanes vs Jamaica Scorpions at Brian Lara Cricket Academy