Barbados eye winning start

Joint defending champions Barbados will launch their defence of the regional limited-overs crown when they clash with the High Performance Centre (HPC) in the opening match of the Super50 Series here today.

The Barbadians tied with the Leeward Islands in a tense final of last year's competition in Jamaica, but will hope to walk away this time with full ownership of the title.

They have reached more regional limited-overs finals (17) than any other team since beating Trinidad and Tobago in the final of the first two tournaments in 1976 and 1977, but have just five titles to show for their efforts.

The HPC, meanwhile, made their debut at this level last year when Guyanese Rajendra Chandrika scored 52 against Barbados and they will look forward to the encounter at Everest Cricket Club.

Guyanese left-arm spinner Veerasammy Permaul, Jamaican leg-spinner Nkrumah Bonner and Vincentian leg-spinner Keron Cottoy could make scoring difficult for the Barbadians, who are without their newest Test player Kirk Edwards, his unrelated namesake Fidel, and Kemar Roach, because of West Indies duties.