WICB four-day tournament bowls off on January 8

The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has announced a new-look 2010 regional first-class season that will include unprecedented day/night matches.



Shortened from last year’s home-and-away round–robin format because of funding issues, 21 matches will be played over a two month period, starting on January 8.



For the first time there will be day/night matches with pink balls and one territory will stage an entire round.



With dwindling interest in recent years, the WICB’s chief executive officer Ernest Hilaire believes the innovations should help to re-energize the tournament.



First round matches will be played in Jamaica, then moving to the Leeward Islands, Barbados, Guyana, Trinidad with the final round in the Windwards.



For the January 8 first-round matches in Jamaica, the hosts begin their title defence against the Windward Islands, Trinidad and Tobago play Combined Campuses and Colleges and Barbados tackle the Leeward Islands.



After the first round bowls off January 8 and ends January 11 in Jamaica, the tournament moves to the Leeward Islands January 15-18 to Barbados for two rounds January 22 to 25 and January 25 to February .



There will be a break from February 2 to 11, before play resumes in Guyana for the fifth round January 12 to 15.



The penultimate round will be in Trinidad from February 19 to 22 before the final round in the Windwards on January 26 to March 1.