Tony Becca, Contributing Editor
Jamaica's stand-in captain,Tamar Lambert - File
THE REGIONAL Carib Beer Series for the four-day Carib Beer Cup and then the five-day Carib Beer Challenge Trophy match between the two top teams opens today with six of the seven teams in action and with Jamaica, up against the Leeward Islands at Sabina Park, numbered among the favourites.
The other matches on today are Trinidad and Tobago versus Guyana at Guaracara Park and the Windward Islands against Barbados at Arnos Vale with newcomers Combined Campuses and Colleges drawing a bye at the start of a contest in which the traditional four, Jamaica, Barbados, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago, are all flexing their muscles and predicting victory even though Jamaica, at least on paper, seem the strongest of them all.
Winners of the KFC regional one-day limited overs tournament with a perfect record recently, Jamaica, seven-time winners of the Cup up to their last success in 2005, are brimming with confidence, not only in their bid to win both titles, but also to start on a winning note against the Leeward Islands who won the four-day title in 1990, 1994, 1996 and in 1998 when they shared it with Guyana.
Oozing confidence
And they are oozing confidence of going all the way for a few good reasons.
One of the reasons is tha the other three main contenders have some good and useful players in their squad, in their five players now in the Windies squad, in captain Chris Gayle, Marlon Samuels and Brenton Parchment, in Jerome Taylor and Daren Powell, Jamaica boast the most players in that party.
On top of that, in Wavell Hinds, Xavier Marshall, Tamar Lambert, Shaun Findlay, Donovan Pagon, Keith Hibbert and first-timer Brendan Nash, in one like David Bernard Jr., and one like Carlton Baugh Jr., in Jermaine Lawson and Andre Russell plus Andrew Richardson and in Nikita Miller and Odean Brown, plus others like Bevon Brown and Gavin Wallace, Jamaica have a number of wonderful players rearing to go, including a batsman or two, a wicketkeeper, a spin bowler or two.
