Latest update May 25th, 2026 12:35 AM
One-day tourney added to TCL under-19 cricket series : Revised format not a concern to three-day champs Guyana
By Sean Devers
Initially dropped from this year’s TCL West Indies under-19 cricket series in Barbados, the One-Day format has once again been added to the three-day format and the 2008 tournament extended by a week.
The regional One-Day under-19 competition was first played in 1998 when rain ruined the three-day series in Trinidad and then added to the three-day format the next year in Barbados.
As the tournament returns to the Island where it began in 1968, the One-Day series was dropped since their was no under-19 limited over competition for the regional team next year and the fixtures adjusted to accommodate a longer rest period for the teenagers with two rest days instead of the one between matches allocated in recent tournaments.
Originally scheduled from July 4-27, this year’s competition has been extended to August 2 when the 50-over final will be played at Kensington Oval, the region’s first Test venue.
Coach of defending three-day champions Guyana, Hubern Evans, had said that the return to the old format of only three-day matches would be advantageous to the South Americans who won their 13th three-day title in St Kitts last year after also taking the title on home soil in 2006.
The 52-year-old Evans, who played seven First-Class matches for Berbice and two for Guyana between 1977 and 1989 felt that because Guyana (yet to win a One-Day title) struggle in the limited overs format, having no 50-overs competition this year would have allowed the team to prepare exclusively for a successful title defence.
The One-Day series is now once again slotted in with each team playing two matches before the winner of each zone clashes in the final. However, Guyana’s Manager Alvin Johnson informed that the revised format is of little concern to the Guyanese.
“We always tend to focus on the three-day competition so while we will not turn a blind eye on the One-Day series, we will continue to concentrate our preparation on three-day cricket and should have two practice matches before the guys break camp on June 28,” Johnson, a Vice-President of the Guyana Cricket board said on Tuesday.
Guyana won the inaugural tournament in Barbados and this year’s 20-man squad had their first ‘net session’ at the Guyana National Stadium since their 13-day encampment commenced on Monday.
The Guyana 14-man team will selected on Friday when a Three-Day practice game is scheduled to commence at Guyana’s first Test venue Bourda while another three-day game is planned for next week.
“The new fixture means that we will have to spend an extra week in Barbados and we are working at present on our mental and physical aspects of our game. We are using the nets at the Stadium to practice in the afternoon after doing physical drills at the (Cliff Anderson) Sports Hall in the mornings,” Johnson said.
He explained that their practice could be affected if it rains since the National Gymnasium where the players use for indoor practice during inclement weather, is unavailable due to rehabilitation work being done there for Guyana’s hosting of CARIFESTA in August.
“We have the use of the Sports Hall everyday from 08:00hrs to 14:30hrs and we are spending lots of time on watching videos of our practice sessions and having lecture sessions with Umpires and other cricket resource personnel,” Johnson informed.
Guyana will battle the Leeward Islands on July 29 and Trinidad and Tobago on August 1 in their two preliminary round One-Day matches. Limited overs champions Jamaica, host Barbados and the Windward Islands are the three teams in the other zone for the One-Day format.
Guyana, who lost to Jamaica in last year’s One-Day final at the Warner Park, open their three-day campaign on July 4 against the Leeward Islands.
This will be the ninth time and first since 1999 that the competition will be hosted by Barbados who won the last of their eight three-day titles in 2002 in Jamaica.
Jamaica, with three titles has won the most one-day competitions.
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