Melbourne open revamped Kingston Wharves with win

Melbourne’s under-15 cricket team won the first and only match that was played at the start of the 35th Kingston Wharves Under-15 Cricket Competition on Tuesday at Boys’ Town Cricket Club in Trench Town.

Melbourne batted first, making 86 all out in 49.2 overs on the back of Caleb Dixon, 26, and the only other two batsmen to reach double figures, namely, Elisha Russell and Christopher Nolan, who both made 13 runs each. Boys’ Town’s captain, Rajae McGeachy, and Marcus Bryan both took four wickets as Melbourne won by 31 runs.

Boys’ Town, though playing at their home ground could only muster 55 all out in 14.4 overs. Captain McGeachy, 40, was the only batsman to get into double figures on a day when six batsmen did not trouble the score, while national U15 player Romario West added just seven runs. Melbourne captain Ansell Crawford shone with the ball, picking up 8-19 in 7.4 overs. The other two wickets went to Akeem Grant, who bagged two maidens in his two overs.

The competition, which is the longest sponsored cricket competition in Jamaica, was launched at Boys’ Town Cricket Club prior to the start of action on the field. It was reformatted last year to include a camp, which was used to deliver intense training to upskill the players beyond just playing competitive matches.

Oneil Cruickshank, cricket operations manager at the Jamaica Cricket Association, spoke about the format.

“It’s what happened last year. When we looked at where we wanted to go and the development pathway that we had, we decided to reintroduce the county phase. So they would play in that preliminary phase, which was clubs and parishes playing against each other and then the county selection panels would select 15 or so set of youngsters to play for the county team and then what we also did was to ask them to select youngsters for a development team so that we can have youngsters in that programme as we look forward to the next year and the next year coming up.”

“Based on what we had last year, we believe that we’re going to have a good crop of youngsters this year because last year was the new year where there were no overage players allowed. A lot of them were playing with youngsters who were 13, 14, so they will have two years in this competition. Additionally, we have members of the Jamaica Under-19 female team who are allowed to play,” said Cruickshank.

JCA’s first vice-president, Fritz Harris, lauded Kingston Wharves’ sponsorship and said that it has been very beneficial to the sport in Jamaica.

“It’s extremely important. It goes to the very heart of Jamaica’s cricket. The Kingston Wharves programme really is where the young talents are born, where the young talents are groomed initially and developed into what you see as the output of Jamaica’s cricket at all levels. So the sponsorship at that level is extremely, extremely important, and one of the great aspects or advantages or benefits of the Kingston Wharves sponsorship is that the programme is not just about sponsoring cricket. It’s about developing young minds, it’s about inculcating good habits, it’s about helping the youngsters to be part of a team to understand processes in determining match steps, and so on.”

Simone Murdock, client services manager at Kingston Wharves, affirmed her organisation’s commitment to the competition, which now includes a camp with the support of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF).

“Having been sponsors for the Wherry Wharf competition before, we got involved with under-19, and now we’ve had a very, very good stretch with the under-15 cricket competition, and as I said, the heritage is not only our association with cricket but our association with the Jamaica Cricket Association in terms of honing young men for this country for 35 years.”

The competition continues today with matches in four zones across the island.