The Jamaica Star :: Sport :: JCA launches semi-pro league

Keisha Hill, Staff Reporter

Eight teams, including Melbourne, Manchester, Jamaica Defence Force (JDF), St Elizabeth, Kingston, St Catherine, Westmoreland and Trelawny, are set to bowl off in the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) 2008 Jamaican Super League (JSL) scheduled to begin on March 28.

The venues that will be used for this year's tournament are Melbourne Oval, Trelawny Multi-purpose Stadium, Alpart, Kirkvine, Chedwin Park and Sabina Park. The JDF and Westmoreland home grounds will not be utilised as they did not meet the league's minimum standards.

Following the official launch of the series yesterday inside the President's Box in the George Headley Stand at Sabina Park, chairman of the JSL and first vice- president of the JCA, Paul Campbell, stated that the aim of the event is to give the players an opportunity to compete against the best in the world.

According to Campbell, implementing the JSL is the first step to have a professional league in Jamaica ahead of Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, which he indicated are in the planning stages to develop a similar league.

"We will focus all our resources on setting higher standards and improving the quality of games that will ultimately improve the turnout at the games," he said.

The JSL will operate under the Single-Entity Business Model used by professionals in North America and will have a centralised structure and maintain some control of all teams and players' contract.

The league will attract, sign and pay players. If particular teams identify potential players the JSL will negotiate salary and give consideration to assigning the player to the discovering team.

For the 2008 season, teams will play each other once on a league basis and the team with the most points declared champion.

The organisers are hoping that in 2009 the teams will play each other once in round one and the return games played in round two. At the end of the competition, the bottom-placed team will be relegated to the Senior Cup and the winner of the Senior Cup will be promoted to the JSL.

Six of the island's top cricketers have already signed retainer contracts with the JCA for the JSL. The six are Tamar Lambert, Nikita Miller, Odean Brown, Jermaine Lawson, Carlton Baugh Jr. and Shawn Findlay, all of whom have given their commitment to remain in Jamaica for the six-month season of the JSL to enhance the quality of play on the pitch.