The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) in an effort to increase the popularity of the regional four day First Class tournament, has decided to return to night cricket in the upcoming 2014 season.
This experiment was tried a couple of years ago and now with the popularity of the longer format of the game waning, the board has decided that there will be one day/night game for every round of the new season.
The First Class season is set to bowl off immediately after the Nagico Super50 series ends on February 28 with three matches. The Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) will join the established six teams T&T, Barbados, defending champion Jamaica, Guyana, the Windwards and the Leewards for this year's tournament.
T&T is on a bye for the first round and go into action on March 7, when they play hosts to the Windward Islands at the Queen's Park Oval in St Clair. This will be a day match, as the day/night match in round two will see Guyana playing Barbados at the Providence Stadium in Guyana.
T&T has a total of four matches at home and will visit Barbados to play that country and then to Guyana for their last round match. Their day/night matches will be played against the Leewards at the Queen's Park Oval from March 14-17 and Jamaica also at the Oval from April 4 -7.
The fixtures have been drawn in order to give all teams two day/night games. It is expected that the teams will play with a pink ball for the day night matches because this has been used for matches of these kind. The last time Regional First Class matches were played as day/night in the region, pink balls were used.
Attendance at these day/night matches are expected to be better than the all day games because people can visit the matches after work and school. Matches are expected to start at 2 pm and end at 9 pm.
Fixtures
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Round 1: Feb 28-Mar 3
Windwards vs Barbados (D/N), Windwards
Jamaica vs Guyana, Sabina Pk
Leewards vs CCC, Leewards
T&T–bye
Round 2: Mar 7-10
T&T vs Windwards, Trinidad
Guyana vs Barbados (D/N), Guyana
Leewards vs Jamaica, Leewards
CCC–bye
Round 3: Mar 14-17
Barbados vs CCC (D/N), Barbados
T&T vs Leewards (D/N), Trinidad
Guyana vs Windwards, Guyana
Round 4: Mar 21-24
CCC vs Guyana (D/N), Barbados
Jamaica vs Windwards, Jamaica
Barbados vs T&T, Barbados
Leewards–bye
Round 5: Mar 28-31
Jamaica vs Barbados, Jamaica
CCC vs T&T, Trinidad
Windwards vs Leewards, Windwards
Guyana–bye
Round 6: Apr 4-7
T&T vs Jamaica (D/N), Trinidad
CCC vs Windwards, Barbados
Leewards vs Guyana, Leewards
Barbados–bye
Round 7: Apr 11- 14
Guyana vs T&T, Guyana
Leewards vs Barbados (D/N), Leewards
CCC vs Jamaica, Barbados
Windwards–bye
Semi Finals: Apr 19-22
Final: Apr 25-28th
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