Defending champion St. Mary won the first match of the 32nd Kingston Wharves U15 Cricket Competition which was launched at the Ultimate Cricket Oval in St. Ann on Tuesday on a perfect day for cricket.
The match began under the watchful eyes of Billy Heaven – president of the Jamaica Cricket Association(JCA), Courtney Francis – CEO of the JCA, Oneil Cruickshank – cricket operations manager and Simone Murdock -corporate services and client experience manager who were at the venue for the launch of the competition.
St. Mary won the toss and invited St. Ann to take first strike under hot, cloudless skies and new playing conditions. St. Ann started shakily, losing their first wicket for 11 runs. They continued losing wickets at regular intervals and were eventually all out for 77 runs in 39.2 overs. Four batsmen got into double figures while sending down some good clean shots but none went on to make any meaningful score. They where Jdain Bailey 18, Deshaun Gayle 14, Oneil Lampard 11 and Brandon Mowatt 10. The pick of the bowlers was Shavaughn Boyd who bagged six for 18 runs in 13.2 overs while national U15 representative Tedain Noyan took two for 26 in 9 overs.
St. Mary won by eight wickets when they knocked off the score in just 13. 3 overs after losing two wickets for 78 runs. The main run getters were Davantae Miller 38 and Tyreece Saunders 22. Jadeek Walker got one wicket for 10 in 1.3 overs and the other wicket went by way of run out.
Murdock who spoke on behalf title sponsor Kingston Wharves made several announcements during the launch which preceded the match. “We are a proud sponsor of the Under 15 Cricket Competition, thirty-two years non-stop and many years before that at the under 19 level. So this is a competition that Kingston Wharves believes in whole heartedly. We have gone beyond the stage of cricketers and are really stakeholders, to improve the state of cricket at the youth level.”
“We try to do this year more than before because its an exceptionally hot year. We are working with the JCA to ensure that the boys get sufficient breaks out of the sun. We’ve also provided some cooling sleeves for all the teams so that they are adequately protected when they are out in the sun. We are also working to get water bottles because the JCA is able to provide the water coolers and we are trying to put some spend in terms of managing the exceptionally hot summer cause that is a big concern for us.”
“As usual we will be recognizing persons who are exceptional players throughout the competition, in the finals we will be giving out the bursaries and we will be also recognizing all the members of the finals with some giveaways” said Murdock.
Cruickshank pointed to the major change to be made to this year’s competition. “The most fundamental change that we have made is that we have moved from the limited overs version. We will be playing a one inning one day which means that the youngsters can bat as long as they can bat or as long as their teams wants them to bat or as long as the other team allows them to bat, so there no limit on the number of overs a particular team can face. We have also allowed each team to use four players who are outside the age criteria. Additionally we have allowed any female who have not yet reached the age of 19 at the start of the competition to participate.”
He also said “this year we are going to be announcing 28 youngsters at the end of the competition where those youngsters will begin preparation for the national team. It’s the first time we will be doing it but we have looked at that cohort of youngsters and we believe that they are gonna need more time to be ready to compete in our regional tournament.”
The competition will feature 19 teams in four zones, with three zones having five teams and one zone – Zone 1 having four teams because St. Thomas will sit out this year due to a number of cricket related issues in the parish.
