Revamped Kingston Wharves U-15 Cricket Competition starts

The revamped competition sees an increase of six teams to a total of 20 teams. Six long-standing and accomplished club teams have been added to increase the number of youngsters who will be kept playing the game beyond the school level. The teams are Kingston Cricket Club, Melbourne Cricket Club, Lucas Cricket Club, Boys’ Town, St Catherine CC and Kensington Cricket Club.

The competition will now be played in four zones of five teams each. The preliminary round will see the teams playing each other once in the zones. The zone winners will play in the semi-finals, then the winners play in the final which is scheduled for August 25.

Grantley Stephenson, CEO of title sponsor Kingston Wharves, welcomed the change which is intended to improve cricket at the U-15 level. Several other announcements were made by Stephenson such as prizes for the top performers in the various departments, as well as an incentive award for the overall winner of the competition.

Billy Heaven, president of Jamaica Cricket Association, said that the format of the competition was changed based on recent experiences and results of cricket at the regional level, as well as to increase the number of cricketers playing the game at a higher level. He also announced that NCB Foundation is back on board as a sponsor for the second year running.

The competition got underway with matches across the island. The feature match was between newcomers Kingston CC and Lucas CC at Sabina Park.

Kingston won the toss and invited Lucas to bat. They made 65 all out in 19 overs on the back of Captain Justin Beckford with 10 and Kishen O’Conor with nine. Malik McKenzie with five for 22 in six overs, and Romar Robinson with three for 17 in six overs were the pick of the bowlers.

Kingston replied with 66 for three in 12.4 overs to win the match by seven wickets. Captain Cleon Lewis with 17 top-scored with Timani Wallace, 15, being the next best batsman. The wickets went to Fabian Brian with two for 20 in five overs and Kyle Stone with one for 15 in three overs.

Source: The Jamaica Observer.