Empire, UWI duel tonight

by EZRA STUARTTONIGHT’S rescheduled Sagicor General Twenty20 cricket final could very well be mistaken for a clash between Barbados and the Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC). Why? Because the nucleus of both the ICBL Empire and Sagicor UWI sides, who meet at Kensington Oval from 7 p.m., weather permitting, will be turning out for the afore-mentioned teams in the inaugural WICB Twenty20 Tournament starting at the same venue on Thursday.National captain Ryan Hinds, his sibling Jason Hinds, who was the leading all-rounder last year, big-hitting Alcindo Holder, West Indies “A” team all-rounder Kevin Stoute and fast-bowling all-rounder Javon Searles are in the Barbados Twenty20 squad. Openers Jason Haynes and Jason Parris as well as the experienced Shawn Graham have also played for Barbados. In addition, Empire, last year’s losing finalists, who will be led by wicketkeeper-batsman Jamal Smith, will be boosted by Trinidad and Tobago left-arm spinner Dave Mohammed.But the man who could play a key role for Empire is slow medium bowler Andre Evelyn.The UWI, as usual will have their regular CCC players such as Romel Currency, Nekoli Parris, coach-player Floyd Reifer, spinners Ryan Austin and Kavesh Kantasingh, Kjorn Ottley, and Gilford Moore.The “students” also have stingy Windward Islands off-spinning all-rounder Liam Sebastien, hard-hitting all-rounder Craig Emmanuel and Miles Bascombe in their ranks.The last time these two teams met in a final – the Sagicor Super Cup in 2008 – the match ended in controversy with UWI formally protesting decisions made by one of the umpires.