Cricket in Barbados
Cricket has been the national pastime of Barbados almost from the beginning of this country’s history, having been introduced to the island by the early English settlers.
It is played in the village streets with homemade bats and taped tennis balls or on one of the many cricket grounds around Barbados.
The most famous cricket ground is Kensington Oval located less than a mile from the heart of the capital of Barbados, Bridgetown. This historic and centuries old home to international cricket was transformed and restored into an ultra modern stadium for the hosting of Cricket for World Cup 2007.
In the last 100 years cricket has grown and prospered with national competitions led first by the Challenge Cricket Committee and now the Barbados Cricket Association. Barbados participates in all of the regional cricket competitions and its teams have several trophies as evidence of their successes.
Barbados is the home to Sir Garfield Sobers ‘The greatest cricketer the world has ever seen” as well as Sir Frank Worrell, Sir Everton Weekes, Sir Clyde Walcott, Seymour Nurse, fiery pace bowlers Wes Hall, Charlie Griffith and Malcolm Marshall, openers Desmond Haynes and Gordon Greenidge who have all forever put the name of Barbados on the world map.
This country is also home to the annual Sir Garfield Sobers Cricket Tournament, which brings together young players from all over the world. Over the years teams from as far away as South Africa have won this competition.
Cricket in Barbados is played throughout the year with major regional and international tournaments taking place between January and May as well as the local Masters Tournament.
The main domestic season runs from May through December and is contested in several divisions.
These divisions being:
» Division One
» Upper Intermediate
» Intermediate (sub-divided into Zone A, Zone B, Zone C and Zone D)
» Schools Division (sub-divided into Zone A and Zone B) and
» Second Division (also sub-divided into Zone A and Zone B).
The Division One competes in three different competitions:
» Caribbean Alliance First Division Championship which is played over three days with a minimum number of seventy-five overs per day, each match comprises of two innings for each team.
» The Sagicor Cup is a limited overs competition, with a maximum of fifty overs played per team.
» The Sagicor Twenty/20 is the newest form of limited overs cricket, and as it states there are a maximum of twenty overs played per team.
The Upper Intermediate, Intermediate, Schools Division contest their own championships within each of their divisions, and is played over three days with a minimum of sixty overs per day, and two innings per team.
The Second Division plays over two days with a minimum number of seventy overs per day, two innings per team. Hoverer the first innings of each team is limited to thirty-five overs.
The Sagicor Shield is played by all divisions other than the First Division is a limited overs competition with a maximum forty overs per team.
Upon the conclusion of the Sagicor Cup, Sagicor Shield and the Sagicor Twenty/20 the three winners advance to the Sagicor Champion of Champions competition which is played according to the Twenty/20 format.
