Red Force bowl off Super50 2023 vs CCC

Trinidad and Tobago Red Force open this year’s CG United Super50 Cup tournament against the returning Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) at the Queen’s Park Oval in Port of Spain on October 17, from 9am.

Cricket West Indies (CWI) announced the tournament’s schedule on Wednesday.

The region’s premier List A 50-over tournament bowls off with a new league format followed by semi-finals and finals to determine the champions.

Trinidad will host all 31 matches, at three venues: the Queen's Park Oval in Port of Spain, Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba and Sir Frank Worrell Cricket Grounds at UWI-SPEC, St Augustine Campus.

All 13 matches at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy, including the semi-finals and final, will be televised live on ESPN Caribbean, with 12 of those matches being day/night games. The remainder of matches will be streamed live on the Windiescricket YouTube channel.

CWI said, “This year’s CG United Super50 Cup will feature a new eight-team league with each of the teams facing each other once. The top four in the league will qualify for the final four.

“First place will play fourth place, with second place playing third place in the two semi-finals which are slated for the Tarouba venue on November 8 and 9.”

The final will be at the same venue on November 11, where the winners will lift the Sir Clive Lloyd Trophy.

The West Indies Academy and CCC will again join the traditional six franchises – defending champions Jamaica Scorpions, Barbados Pride, Guyana Harpy Eagles, Leeward Islands Hurricanes, TT Red Force and Windward Islands Volcanoes.

Miles Bascombe, CWI’s director of cricket, said that this is a crucial stage in their planning as the region looks to build towards the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2027.

“We see the upcoming CG United Super50 Cup as the perfect platform to establish and incentivise a West Indies brand of play in the 50-over format, and for the emergence of new talent.

“The introduction of the round-robin format will provide players with more playing time in the middle as well as a balanced way of gauging individual and team performances. We are pleased to again have CCC and the West Indies Academy participating at the senior level as they join the other six franchise teams as we look to widen the pool of players.”

Dominic Warne, CWI’s Commercial Director, added that the move to an eight-team league in the CG United Super50 Cup provides fans with an exciting tournament schedule with 31 matches scheduled in 26 days.

“Every game will be available from first ball to last, either live on ESPN Caribbean or streamed live on the Windies Cricket YouTube channel. The new windiescricket.com Live Match Centre will also give fans full match analysis plus live ball-by-ball scoring and commentary for all 31 matches giving the widest access and coverage to the CG United Super50 Cup,” said Warne.

This is CG United’s fifth consecutive year as title sponsor.

CG United Super50 Round One Matches

October 17: TT Red Force vs CCC at QPO (9am)

October 17: Guyana Harpy Eagles vs Windward Islands Volcanoes at BLCA (1pm)

October 18: Leeward Islands Hurricanes vs Jamaica Scorpions at BLCA (1pm)