Walsh
THE ANNUAL Milo/Melbourne cricket festival takes place at Melbourne Oval today with a Melbourne Invitational XI up against a Jamaica XI in a 50-over-a-side contest to be played under the Red Stripe Bowl rules set to start at 10:00 a.m.
The festival, ruined by rain on September 29, promises to be a day of exciting cricket with some of the region's leading players and some of Jamaica's best in action and competing for a winner-take-all cash prize of $60,000.
Numbered among the Melbourne Invitational XI which will be led by Courtney Walsh - the former Jamaica and West Indies fast bowler who holds the world for the most wickets in Test cricket, are Barbados batsmen Philo Wallace and Floyd Reifer, Trinidad and Tobago's batsman Andy Jackson, Grenada's batsman Devon Smith and Guyana's fast bowler Colin Stuart.
The rest of the team will come from Howard Harris - the hard-hitting batsman from St. Ann, batsman Donovan Pagon and wicketkeeper/batsman Carlton Baugh Jnr who are two of the country's brightest prospects, fast bowler Leon Bent and batsmen Aubrey Wollaston, Llewelyn Meggs and Ray Stewart.
With batsmen Chris Gayle, Wavell Hinds, Marlon Samuels and Ricardo Powell and fast bowlers Daren Powell and Jermaine Lawson with the West Indies team in Bangladesh, the Jamaica XI will not, as originally planned, include all the members of this year's champion Busta Cup team.
Such is the strength of Jamaica's cricket, however, that the Jamaica XI, to be led by captain Robert Samuels, will parade a number of gifted players - including fast bowler Franklyn Rose, allrounder Gareth Breese and batsmen Leon Garrick and Mario Ventura.
The rest of the line-up will come from batsmen Brenton Parchment and Tamar Lambert, allrounder David Bernard Jnr and wicketkeeper Keith Hibbert who are also numbered the country's most promising talent, batsman Wayne Cuff, legspinner Brian Murphy, left-arm spinner Ryan Cunningham, offspinner Nehemiah Perry and fast bowler Audley Sanson.
During the lunch break, there will be a netball shooting contest with six of the country's best in action and $10,000 on the line.
