BRIDGETOWN, CANA:
A likely split-up of the Leeward and Windward Islands for this year's expanded Red Stripe Bowl West Indies limited-overs cricket championship has gained favourable responses throughout the sub-regions.
The West Indies Cricket Board's cricket committee has approved a plan to double the number of teams in the Bowl.
It includes Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia and St. Vincent & the Grenadines of the Windwards, along with Anguilla, Antigua, Nevis, St. Kitts and either the combined Virgin Islands or Montserrat of the Leewards playing separately.
Trevor Chapman, Stan Hinds, Jack Matthews and Pastor Stevenson Worme all agree the split-up will be to the benefit of the sport in the two sub-regions and in the Caribbean.
"We are very enthusiastic and we are out to prove a point because over the past few years we have been the ones to dominate the Leeward Islands championship," Chapman, a Nevisian sports broadcaster, told yesterday's CANASPORT radio programme.
"We feel we can take on some of the more established sides and give them a taste of what we have to offer. Others like Antigua & Barbuda, St. Kitts and Anguilla, all Leeward Islands limited-overs champions, will feel similarly about this format that is being proposed.
"I think it will open up a number of opportunities for players who under normal circumstances would not have been given this chance. This is going to be an eye-opener for the WICB because a number of young players are going to be coming through and it will expose the talent and enhance several."
Any attempts to split-up the Leewards' and Windwards' unions for regional competitions have always been resisted strongly in previous years by the WICB. There was a fear that a few of the islands may seek to break away completely and compromise the strength of the unified sides.
Neither Chapman, Hinds, Matthews nor Worme feel there are any dangers in splitting up the two unions. Rather, they are many benefits to reap.
There are likely to be as many as 20 teams, including Kenya and two English counties, playing in this year's Bowl.
They and the broken-up Leewards and Windwards will be added to the WICB founder members Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, along with Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Canada and the United States.
