Regional Four Day Competition
Regional Four Day Competition: participating teams
Barbados national cricket team
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Regional Four Day Competition - Tournament in Wes Indies
The Regional Four Day Competition is a first-class regional 4-day cricket competition held in the West Indies. The tournament has changed its name many times. Still, the most popular is the Digicel Four Day Championship, which lasted from 2017 to 2018 thanks to the sponsorship of the local telecom giant Digicel. The championship received its current name – the West Indies Championship in 2019.
The tournament system assumed the presence of one round of competitions or single round-robin before the 2014/15 season, i.e. holding the group stage (each game with each) followed by the semi-finals and the final. True, in this case, a situation could arise with the identification of several winners. The solution to this problem was found in changing the system to double round-robin, in which the team with the most points became the winner. Thanks to this, it was possible to avoid difficulties with the appearance of several favorites.
The reigning champion and record holder for the number of titles (20) is Barbados, while Jamaica has the longest streak of 5 championships in a row.
Regional Four Day Competition: history
The new tournament debuted on the cricket calendar in 1965/66 and was originally called the Shell Shield. Five teams competed for the championship title of the first draw, playing on the system of two home and two away matches. Despite private claims to this system, it existed until 1982, after which the composition of the participants changed, and, therefore, the number of games.
The league had a new title sponsor the next season, which also changed the name to the Red Stripe Cup. The increase in the number of teams was covered by a parallel increase in the number of matches. Additional funding has contributed to the improvement in the quality of matchmaking.
However, the WICB decided to experiment with the format of the game, establishing round-robin matches both at home and away, which together increased the number of matches to 10 meetings.
The contract with the Red Stripe ended in 1998, and the tournament founder agreed to the terms of the new partner Busta (a soft drink manufacturer), whose name – the Busta Cup, soon appeared in the title of the draw. There were structural changes – there was a semi-final and a final added after the round-robin.
The beginning of the 2000s became a period of total domination in the championship of Barbados and Jamaica, which managed to share the first 6 titles of the new millennium. In this regard, the organizers were looking for a solution through the connection teams from other regions (England, Kenya, India, Bangladesh) to the tournament, which could make a worthy competition, taking part at least seasonally.
The title sponsor changed again in 2002, leading to a new name change to the Carib Beer Cup, which lasted until the end of the 2008/09 season. The abandonment of the main investor entailed significant changes in the format this time: the league had to return to the original model, with 6 participants and a season consisting of 9 games. The championship began its new season 2009/10 as the Regional Four Day Competition.
A major structural change in the first-class came in 2014 when the WICB eliminated the possibility of juniors (college teams) and introduced a franchise system like the Caribbean Premier League. Special attention was paid to the draft system: clubs were given the right to retain up to 10 players and the remaining third to get at the auction. The Regional Four Day Competition is part of the new Professional Cricket League, which debuted in the 2014/15 season.
A distinctive feature of the new association is a round-robin system, according to which the team with the most points earned wins the Headley / Weekes Trophy.
Regional Four Day Competition: participants
7 Caribbean countries are fighting for the main trophy of the tournament at the moment, rarely – third-party teams. The permanent members Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago are now considered separate representatives (countries) like the teams from the Leeward and the Windward Islands, which were previously united (the Combined Islands).
The current squad has been participating in the Regional 4 Day Competition since 2007:
- the Barbados Pride;
- the Guyana Jaguars;
- the Jamaica Scorpions;
- the Leeward Islands Hurricanes;
- the Trinidad and Tobago Red Force;
- the Windward Islands Volcanoes.
You can recall the invited teams: the Combined Islands, the India A, the England Lions, the Kenya, the West Indies B, the Bangladesh A, the Combined Campuses and the Colleges, which took part in the drawing at different periods.
