MARSHALL
Anthony Foster, Freelance Writer
THE 2004 TCL Group West Indies Under-19 Youth Cricket Cham-pionship bowls off today with four matches across the island headlined by a clash between hosts Jamaica and the Leeward Islands at UWI Bowl.
The Championship opens with the limited-overs competition and will be followed by the league tourney.
Trinidad & Tobago won both the limited overs and league titles last year and the twin-island republic will be involved in one of the main first round matches, when they take in last year's beaten finalist, Windward Islands, at St. Thomas' Goodyear Oval.
In other first round matches, Barbados face Bermuda at Up Park Camp and Guyana tackles Rest of Americas at Port Esquivel.
All matches are set to start at 10:00 a.m.
Along with the Leewards and Jamaica, Barbados and Bermuda are the other Zone A teams, while Zone B comprise the defending champions, Guyana, the Windwards and the Rest of the Americas team.
Coach of the local team, Junior Bennett, says they are looking to make a "positive start" in the first match of the round robin series which concludes with the semi-finals on July 31 and the final on August 1.
He said: "Everything is going according to plan so far, we are just looking to get off to a positive start."
His opposite number, Winston Benjamin, said they will come out fighting, but added: "I am not going to tell you that we are going to win every game... we are most definitely going to compete, so hopefully we can entertain Jamaica and Jamaicans, and come out on top."
RETAINED THREE PLAYERS
Although Jamaica have retained the services of three players (captain Jamie Trenchfield, Xavier Marshall and Alton Beckford) from last year's team, they are expected to make a strong push for the title amidst Bennett's claim that they ""will be banking on all-round strength".
He admitted not knowing much about the opponent, saying: "Most of the teams are extremely young so I don't know about them.
"We are just going to play some good cricket, we hope to play each ball on its merit, its one-day cricket, but we have to be patient also."
Like Jamaica, the Leewards have also retained three players from the last championship, Montcin Hodge, Dillon Skellekie and Ian Byron and their coach, Benjamin, also admitted not knowing much about heir challengers. However, he is not "worried" about that.
"I am not one to be worried about what the opponent has, I am just going to play to my strength. Hopefully once we do that, the other team will be trailing," said Benjamin, a former West Indies fast bowler.
He added that his team is not top class, but "...we're going to work our butts off with this team."
Jamaica's Marshall should be the team's main threat to opposing bowlers throughout this series.
The right-handed batsman has being playing regional cricket since 1999 at the Under-15 level. He was also a member of the West Indies team that won the Under-15 World Cup in England four years ago and earlier this year, played a crucial role on the regional Youth team which contested the final of the Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh.
Apart from Marshall, Jamaica's team is blessed with impressive stroke makers such as left-handed Trenchfield, Yanick Elliott, Ziggy Levy and Damion Ebanks. With this batting line-up, if an assertion is to be made based on what was seen yesterday of the Leewards' bowling attack in training, Jamaica could be primed for a run-feast.
However, Jamaica will have to be careful of their opponents' lower order batting and fast bowlers Roy Williams and Denva Passley, along with Beckford or Dennis Bulli, whoever is chosen, cannot bowl too full, wide or short. All-rounder Byron is a very good clean hitter of the ball and so too is left-handed Kimoi Alexander.
LAST YEAR'S FINALISTS
For the repeat match-up among last year's finalists, the Trinidadians will bank on four players returning from last year in captain Kavesh Kantasingh, his deputy Aaron Ragoonath, Young West Indies left-arm spin bowler Rishi Bachan and another left-arm spinner, Magnum Nanan.
Windwards senior team batsman Craig Emmanuel heads seven players returning for his team. The others are Young West Indies fast bowler Mervin Matthew, Ron
Edwards, Earven Fredericks, Jean Paul, Asa Edwards and Nelon Pascal.
