JAMAICA, STILL smarting from their two recent losses, one in the one-day KFC tournament and one in the four-day Carib Beer Series, take on Barbados in the KFC tourney at Kensington Park today, and in a desperate bid to win the match, they have rolled the dice and have made three changes from the team that lost the four-day game at Chedwin Park on Tuesday.

Personnel changes

In an attempt to squeeze out a better performance than that in the one-day match against Guyana at Alpart last Thursday which they lost by 40 runs after being dismissed for 123, and also a better one than that against Barbados in the four-day match at Chedwin Park when they were routed for 132 and 135 while losing by an innings and 31, the national selectors, chairman Ruddy Williams, Delroy Morgan and Ephraim McLeod along with captain Wavell Hinds, have made some interesting changes in the personnel, in the batting order, and in the attack.

After retaining the same team for the one-day match against Guyana after defeating them in the four-day encounter, after making one change for the four-day match against Barbados after losing the one-day match against Guyana and after losing the four-day match against Barbados, the selectors, in their bid to find a winning formula, have dropped opening batsman Danza Hyatt, newcomer and middle-order batsman Jaime Trenchfield and fast bowler Andrew Richardson for today's one-day match against Barbados.

In rolling the dice after a pow wow on Wednesday involving president of the Jamaica Cricket Association, Jackie Hendriks, Milton Henry -- team manager, Junior Bennett - team coach and captain Hinds, Jamaica have replaced them with Lorenzo Ingram, who was dropped for the four-day match against Barbados, off-spinner Bevon Brown and newcomer wicketkeeper/batsman Shane Powell.

Powell, who scored 390 runs at an average of 30.00 in 13 innings during the Supreme Ventures Super Cup competition, 261 runs at an average of 32.60 in eight innings during the four-day trial matches and 27 runs in two innings during the one-day trial matches, will be making his debut not as a wicketkeeper/batsman but as a specialist batsman.

Apart from the changes in personnel, with Hyatt out, Ingram, the left-hander who previously batted at number three, will open the innings with the right-handed Brenton Parchment - probably in the hope that a move up the order will improve Ingram's performance and that the left and right combination will disrupt the rhythm of the Barbados fast bowlers, including their two swing bowlers, Corey Collymore and the left-handed Pedro Collins.

The aggressive Powell, who is likely to bat at number three with Hinds and Tamar Lambert going back to their usual number four and number five spots respectively, has been brought in with the hope that he will make some runs, and with left-arm spinner Nikita Miller and legspinner Odean Brown already in the team, the selectors have brought in Bevon Brown to make it a trio of spin bowlers plus Lambert.

With the new ball to be bowled by Lawson and the medium-paced all-rounder David Bernard Jnr., the selectors, probably haunted by the memory of the performance of part-time off-spinner Lambert on Monday at Chedwin Park and probably remembering the assault against Jamaica's fast bowlers - and particularly so by Dale Richards who slammed an unforgettable 159 in the four-day match, have obviously also decided, and probably correctly so, to hit Barbados with an attack heavily dependent on spin.

After defeating the Leeward Islands with five wickets to spare and the Windward Islands also with five wickets to spare, Jamaica, after dismissing Guyana for 163, lost their third match by 40 runs, and with one to go after this will seal a place in the semi-finals if they win this one.

Based on their batting performance over the season, however, and especially so over the past three innings, victory will not be easy - even though Barbados' record of one win, one loss and one no-result is not any better than Jamaica's.

Apart from Richards, however, a batsman who hits the ball with awesome power and often at that, in Floyd Reifer, Wayne Blackman, captain Ryan Hinds, Alcinder Holder and all-rounder Kevin Stoute, Barbados possess some good, powerful, no-nonsense batsmen in their squad, in off-spinner Ryan Austin and left-arm spinner Sulieman Benn, they have two good spin bowlers and in Collymore, Collins, Tino Best and Fidel Edwards, they have four good fast bowlers from which they may chose three or, if they look at Jamaica's performance at Chedwin Park, probably all four.