Photo Credit: Cricket West Indies
Cricket West Indies (CWI) today 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 yesterday 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 & 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 4 at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy with the chasing four teams aiming to win their games in round 3 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 Champions, 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.”
Photo Credit: WIPA
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
Name of Author: Cricket West Indies
Cricket West Indies (CWI) governs cricket across the West Indies, a confederation of Caribbean countries. Originally established as the West Indies Cricket Board of Control in the 1920s, it became the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) in 1996 and was rebranded as Cricket West Indies in May 2017 as part of a restructuring effort.
