SAGICOR UWI
Position last year: Champions
Home ground: 3Ws Oval
Captain: Omar Phillips was appointed captain for the three-day competition but will be unavailable at the start of the season because of a professional contract in England. Kyle Corbin, who has been appointed captain for the 50-over and Twenty20 competitions, will also lead the team in the three-day version.
Coach: Floyd Reifer
Manager: Steven Leslie
In: None
Out: Liam Sebastien has graduated from UWI and has returned to his native Dominica
Unavailable at start of season: Omar Phillips, Kevin McClean (both on professional contracts in England)
OVERVIEW: The four-time defending champions now appear to be in a class by themselves and it is difficult to predict anything but a fifth successive title.
To win the title by 47 points last year speaks for itself. To follow up by capturing the 50-over and Twenty20 competitions by winning 19 of 20 matches is even more spectacular.
Three seasoned players are missing but they still have a plethora of first class players.
The absence of appointed three-day captain Phillips and McClean to professional contracts in England will hardly be felt and it seems the only question is if UWI can be as distant from the rest of the pack again this season.
Last year, they boasted the season’s top run-scorer in Jonathan Carter and leading wicket-taker in Akeem Dewar. There are others in the squad capable of such standards.
UWI are hoping that all-rounder Carlos Brathwaite, who sustained an ankle injury on the eve of the regional first class season in the first week of February, will be available to start the tournament.
EXPECTATIONS:
Steven Leslie (manager): “The team is committed to play a brand of cricket that will improve the overall standard in Barbados.
“We hope to retain the three championships but play an attractive brand that everyone will appreciate and look to the future with optimism.
“In a cricket match, either team can be victorious on a given day. We cannot drop our guard. We will try to play at a level that allows us to win more often than we lose.”
PREDICTION: Champions. It will probably require a combined team from the remaining clubs to dethrone UWI as three-day champions.
