Barbados Twenty20 squad for the West Indies Cricket Board Regional Twenty20 Tournament is very strong. Sulieman Benn, Kemar Roach, Ryan Hinds (Captain), Dale Richards and Tino Best all have played in the West Indies Senior Squad. The Barbados squad is experienced and filled with a variety with a strong bowling and batting attack. They have more all-rounders than any other team in the competition.
Strong Barbados Bowling
The Barbados bowlers would be led by pacer Kemar Roach with some assistance from fellow pacer Tino Best. Sulieman Benn and Ryan Hinds are the top spinners for Barbados. Jonathan Carter the solid all-rounder player is a good medium pacer and very good middle order batsman. This puts Barbados in a solid position to win the competition. Their batsmen and bowlers are experienced at this level and this type of cricket fits into most of their players’ liking. The competition runs from Jan. 10 – 23.
World Cup 2011
In spite of India, South Africa,Sri Lanka all being top contenders and favorites to win the ICC World Cup in 2011 starting February. The West Indies has some young emerging talented players such as Adrian Barath, Daren Bravo and pacer Kemar Roach. The batting should be good with the experience of Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Chris Gayle and the return of Ramnaresh Sarwan, Carlton Baugh Jr. the wicket keeper-batsman should be ready to perform well to boost the West Indies batting.
Nikita Miller, Sulieman Benn, Dwayne Bravo and Daren Sammy (Captain) would be at the forefront of West Indies bowling attack. The experienced players will have a pivotal role to play in pushing the West Indies forward to the semi-finals and the finals.
Financial Losses
For the second year, the WICB will incur losses in the staging of the Caribbean Twenty20 Championship. The tournament, which began Jan. 10 in Antigua and Barbados will cost the WICB $3,000,000. With no major sponsors available, the WICB will be forced to absorb a large portion of the expenses.
High Costs
It will cost $800,000 to produce 12 days of television coverage for the Twenty20 tournament. The WICB viewed the scenario not as a lost but a serious investment in regional players and the development of the game.
The WIBC will lose in terms of direct returns from the tournament. There were a few sponsors who showed interest to be associated with the Caribbean Twenty20 but they were asking for the tournament to be broadcast internationally.
The tournament involves seven regional sides along with Canada and English counties Sommerset and Hamshire.