Arnos Vale gets two regional fixtures

The Arnos Vale Playing Field will be the venue for two matches of the West Indies Cricket Board’s four-day tournament.{{more}}

St. Vincent and the Grenadines has been omitted from the regional itinerary, as Pakistan and India visit.

The Pakistan series runs from April 18 to May 20, and the Indian leg starts June 4 and finishes July 10.

With no international matches fixtured here for 2011, the atonement is two regional matches, as Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago will meet the Windwards here next month.

February 18-21, the Windwards plays Guyana, and February 25-28, they meet Trinidad and Tobago.

The tournament bowls off February 4 and ends on April 11 with a league phase, followed by two semi-finals and a final. The top four Caribbean teams in the league will compete in the semi-finals.

The tournament will commence with four matches, in Jamaica, Antigua, Trinidad and Barbados, and then will progress throughout the region, as each team will play each opposing team once in the league phase.

The opening round of matches pit Jamaica versus Guyana in Jamaica; the Windwards plays the Combined Campuses and Colleges at the 3W’s Oval in Barbados; the England Lions play the Leewards in St. Kitts; and Trinidad and Tobago hosts Barbados.

The tournament will take a break after the fourth round and resume on March 11.

Seven regional teams will compete in the tournament along with the England Lions, who will participate in the league before returning to the UK on March 28. They will not be eligible for the play-off stages, i.e. semi-finals and finals.

The semi-finals are set for April 1-4, when the first place in the league meets the fourth place and the second place engages the third. The final takes place April 8-11.

The Umpire Exchange Programme with England and Bangladesh will continue and Richard Illingworth of England will officiate in three matches. A Bangladeshi umpire, to be named, will also officiate in three matches.