Audley Boyd, Assistant Sport EditorRED STRIPE last night signed an $18-million contract
with the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) to sponsor a two-day all-island competition for three years.
The competition is named the Red Stripe Cricket Champioinship and it will comprise 12 teams - eight rural, three Corporate Area and the national Under-19 team.
The contract signing took place at Red Stripe Vibes, the recently refurbished sports club at the sponsorship company's Spanish Town Road base, where they also took the opportunity to honour freelance photographer Headley 'Dellmar' Samuels for his contribution in the field of sports photography particularly cricket.
TRIBUTES
Glowing tributes were paid to the man who celebrated 25 years of covering West Indies cricket in 2004, through a special tribute which included a video presentation titled 'Through Dellmar's Lens'; and by members of the cricket association and the Red Stripe team, who were equally praised for resuming their long-standing partnership with cricket.
Mark McKenzie, Red Stripes' managing director, explained the reason for his
company's support, saying the "... focus is moving more to developmental areas of sports so that we can bring forth sportsmen and sportswomen who can represent Jamaica. We'll be investing $18m over the next three years to develop a cricket
championship."
He added: "Our expectation is that it will involve clubs from every corner of Jamaica and impact all across Jamaica to develop cricket."
The eight rural participants are St. Ann, St. James, Clarendon, Hanover, Portland, St. Thomas, Trelawny and Westmoreland, while the three Corporate Area teams are Boys' Town, Police and Kingston and St. Andrew.
Commenting on the move to include the other competitor, the Under 19s, JCA president Jackie Hendriks said it was done "in order to prepare them properly for the regional championships in August".
They will get more than two months of competitive action as the competition is set to bowl off with its first round of matches on the weekend of Saturday, April 2 and Sunday, April 3, and is set to conclude on July 9 and 10.
PROMOTION
The participants will play each other once for a total of 11 matches, with the top two guaranteed automatic promotion to the Super Cup.
Besides promotion, there are other incentives, topped by the first place cash award of $200,000. The runner-up ($100,000), third place ($50,000) and fourth ($25,000) will also benefit for consistently good play.
Each team will receive $100,000 to assist in transportation, overnight accommodation and meals but JCA CEO Brian Breese added that some of that money must be used to upgrade facilities.
The sponsor also presented all the teams with tops for its players, and all match fees and travelling expenses
for umpires will be paid from the sponsorship purse.
Other cash awards include $10,000 for an outright win, $5,000 for first innings points, $10,000 for all batsmen scoring a century or bowlers claiming 10 or more wickets in a match and $5,000 for
scoring a century or taking five or more wickets in an innings.
The Championships' Most Valuable Player, Top Fielder and Top Wicketkeeper will each earn $25,000.
