BROOKLYN, NY– The West Indies Championship 2022 will resume on May 18, Cricket West Indies (CWI) said on Tuesday as it 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 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.
CWI’s Director of Cricket Jimmy Adams stressed the importance of the regional four-day competition, saying it plays a critical role in the player-development pathway.
“While we cannot recover the two years lost to the COVID-19 pandemic, we can now restart 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 development on hold during the enforced break,” he said.
Defending champions Barbados Pride lead the points table with 42 points, and Trinidad & Tobago Red Force is second with 38.6 points – both recordings win 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 honor 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. The chasing four teams aim to win their games in round 3 of the West Indies Championship to close the points gap ahead of the concluding matches.
Each squad will consist of 15 players for the ongoing tournament due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
CWI is also implementing a particular “player loan” system 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 group and a pool of locally registered reserve players.
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