Guyana Amazon Warriors got off to a winning start on their home leg of the Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) with a thrilling victory over the Jamaica Tallawahs on Wednesday night.

The Tallawahs won the toss and opted to field first and but for the final three overs of the Amazon Warriors innings that seemed like an inspired decision.

Restricting the Amazon Warriors to 104-7 after 17 overs the Tallawahs looked in full control but Odean Smith and Keemo Paul added 74 from 27 balls to guide the Amazon Warriors to a magnificent 178-8.

 The total looked beyond the Tallawahs but Brandon King led a lone charge with the first Hero CPL century of the tournament. Taking the chase down to the final over, King was dismissed with three balls to go and with that victory slipped out of The Tallawahs' reach.

 Earlier the Tallawahs had taken control of the match with their cadre of spinners tying the Amazon Warriors in knots.

 Other than Shai Hope who hit a sparkling 60 from 45 balls no other batter was able to get to grips with the conditions and when Gudakesh Motie fell in the 16^th over to leave the Amazon Warriors 98-7 it felt like Jamaica’s game to lose.

 That was until Smith and Paul produced a quite remarkable display of power hitting to blast the Amazon Warriors to an improbable total. 74 runs were plundered off the final three overs to set the Tallawahs an unlikely 179 to win.

 If 179 was unlikely, Brandon King clearly did not read the script. His one-man mission to chase down the total nearly pulled off an unlikely heist. Hitting shots all over the ground King reached an unbeaten 80 from 55 balls when the rain came down to interrupt the match.

When play resumed King marched serenely to his century but he could not see the chase home falling with three balls to spare and with that the Tallawahs' hopes were extinguished. 

 Scores: Guyana Amazon Warriors 178-8 (Hope 60, Smith 42; Nabi 3-12, Green 2-24) beat Jamaica Tallawahs 166 (King 104, Mckenzie 15; Tahir 2-17, Smith 2-26) by 12 runs.

Guyana Amazon Warriors captain Shimron Hetmyer was full of praise for all-rounder Odean Smith who played a pivotal role for the team in a 12-run win over Jamaica Tallawahs in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) on Wednesday.

With the Warriors desperately needing a result, in their first match on home soil this season, Smith impacted the game decisively at both ends.  Batting first, the Warriors found themselves in deep trouble at 98 for 7 before Smith bludgeoned 42 from 16 and shared in a seventh-wicket partnership of 74 from 27 with Keemo Paul to push the team to a respectable 178 for 8.

At the other end, on the back of a defiant 104 from Brandon King, the Tallawahs seemed poised for an unlikely victory, needing just 20 off the last over.  King got things started off with a 6 but Smith shut the door, taking 2 wickets and effecting a runout for an overall 26 runs. He was named the man of the match.

“I actually had no idea we would have actually gotten that many I was actually thinking let’s get to 140, 150 and we’ll fight but as we saw today it was a fantastic innings from him (Smith), hats off to him,” Hetmyer said of Smith's contribution.

“He played one of the most special innings that I’ve had the pleasure of seeing and he’s one of those guys that anything can happen on a given day.  He’s just one of those special guys.”

Former West Indies opening batsman Philo Wallace believes the 15-man squad selected for the upcoming T20 World Cup in Australia has the issue of being short of genuine batsmen.

It’s safe to say that the selection announced by the Desmond Haynes-led panel, earlier this week, included quite a few surprises.  The list included some players on the fringes of the T20 unit for a while, with the likes of Sheldon Cottrell and Johnson Charles recalled and the inexperienced Yannic Cariah also earning somewhat of a shock selection.  

In some ways, Wallace believes the team is similar in composition to the West Indies squad selected for last year's failed World Cup campaign, which had focused on stacking up power hitters.

“We’re going to Australia on bigger cricket grounds and we are carrying a lot of hitters of the cricket ball.  I think when these guys are asked to bat, they are going to find themselves in problems.  A lot of them are not even in form,” Wallace told the Mason and Guest radio program.

The former opener also had questions regarding how different pieces of the team would fit together.

“If you play Johnson Charles you have four openers on that T20 squad right now.  Is he going to keep wicket or is he going to field out.  Yannic Cariah is a wildcard, he doesn’t play T20 cricket, and he’s not involved in CPL.  If he plays where is he going to fit into the 11?”

 The Barbados Royals secured their eighth win of the 2022 Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) season with a 36-run win over St Kitts & Nevis Patriots at Providence Stadium, Guyana. 

Olympic sprint relay gold medallist Briana Williams is about to launch a new chapter of her track and field career under the guidance of new coaches to begin the 2022/2023 track season.

Club cricket in Jamaica had been dormant for two years due to the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic.

From May 7-June 9 this year, the Jamaica Cricket Association staged the All-Island Limited Overs competition, ending a long wait for the return of club cricket in the country.

That two-year hiatus affected many of the prominent cricket clubs around the island, including The Melbourne Cricket Club.

Since its inception in 1892, the club has been synonymous with winning and has produced many cricketers who have gone on to represent the region at the highest level including Courtney Walsh, Michael Holding, Marlon Samuels, Robert Samuels, Carlton Baugh Jr, Donovan Pagon and Nikita Miller to name a few.

“For starters, Melbourne is a cricket club and we attract patrons mostly through cricket; be it players, spectators and/or fans. Closing our doors for two years resulted in a loss of the vibrancy of the club as well as the recruitment of young players,” said James Stewart, team manager at Melbourne.

“Currently, the players who represent the club are those who have been around for some time,” he added.

The Derrymore Road-based club also won the last edition of the Limited Overs tournament in 2019 but failed to pass the preliminary round this year.

“Our team failing to progress to the next round was down to several factors. Firstly, we did not execute our plans in the first three games. As a result, we had to play ‘catch up.’ Secondly, several players in our ranks had overseas assignments and that left the team weakened,” Stewart said.

The Jamaica Defence Force came away winners of that title after a tense two-wicket victory over St. Mary at Sabina Park.

Melbourne will be aiming to rebound from that disappointment with success in the ongoing JCA T20 Bashment which began on September 4 and will end on October 9.

The team has so far gone unbeaten in their first five matches of the preliminary round, recording three wins and two no results and with their final two group games coming this weekend, the club stands a good chance of advancing to the quarterfinals.

“Based on our team structure, we have a good chance of winning this ongoing T20 Bashment. Currently, we have not lost a game and we have only dropped points because of the weather. Most of pour players are in good batting form and the bowling is improving weekly,” said Stewart who is also coaching the team in the tournament due to the absence of regular head coach Nikita Miller who is on assignment with the Trinbago Knight Riders in the Caribbean Premier League.

“Additionally, we have had some bolstering to our ranks in terms of our bowling. These additions will go a far way in terms of how effectively and efficiently we execute our plans throughout this tournament,” he added.

As the global squash fraternity embarks on raising awareness for the sport, President of the Jamaica Squash Association Karen Anderson wants more women to be involved with the sport.

Jamaican thrower Venique Brown will return to the University at Albany in the role of Director of Operations for the track & field and cross-country program, the school announced on Tuesday.

Brown, 26, will begin her term part-time before assuming the full-time role in October.

Brown joined the University at Albany in 2018 as a graduate student after attending the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. Before University, she attended the Ardenne High School.

She is one of the highest-performing competitors in UAlbany history. Brown is one of two members of the women's program to earn Division I All-America honours after placing sixth in her signature event, the discus, at the 2019 NCAA Outdoor Championships. 

Furthermore, Brown is the first woman in program history to specifically earn First Team All-America honours in the Division I era. 

That same 2019 season saw Brown being named Northeast Region Women's Field Athlete of the Year. She also set the UAlbany program record in the event, recording a mark of 57.94m. Her personal best of 58.97m was done in 2017.

Brown earned two graduate degrees from the ENEB Business School, her MBA and her Master's in Supply Chain Management in 2021 after earning undergraduate degrees from UAlbany in Economics and Business Administration in 2020. 

After exhausting her eligibility, Brown continued her role with UAlbany track & field as a student volunteer assistant coach while she completed her degrees.

Newly appointed Reggae Boyz head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson believes his first order of business is to develop a national philosophy on how Jamaican wants to play football.

Jamaica goalkeeper Andre Blake has once again been named to Major League Soccer’s Team of the Week.

The 31-year-old shot-stopper has been in inspired form for Major League Soccer (MLS) club Philadelphia Union so far this season and claimed his spot in goal for week 32’s best selection, with another inspired performance.

The custodian was at his very best in a draw at Atlanta United FC on the weekend and made at least 5 big saves to earn his team a share of the spoils.  In truth, the Union found themselves on the back foot for most of the encounter.

Perhaps his biggest and most important save came in second-half stoppage time as Atlanta found its all-time leading goalscorer alone at the back post but Blake was there for the close-range reaction stop to keep Josef Martinez from unlocking the tie.

On the back of another outstanding season, the Jamaican is firmly in the running for the MLS Goalkeeper of the Year honours, an award that he won in both 2016 and 2020.  Earlier this month, the player achieved another significant milestone for the Philadelphia Union after reaching 200 appearances.

One big-hitting left-hander Evin Lewis has surpassed another, Chris Gayle, for the most sixes scored in Caribbean Premier League (CPL) history.

On Sunday, the 30-year-old managed just 19 for St Kitts and Nevis Patriots in a lopsided 49-run loss to the St Lucia Kings but despite the defeat, there was a positive side.  Lewis's two sixes in the innings moved him level and then one clear of legendary T20 star Chris Gayle.

Gayle has remained at the top of the six-hitting leader board for some time on 172 from 85 matches.  Lewis's new high of 173 has come in 86 matches.  Kieron Pollard is in third place on 152.

Lewis, who was recently named to the West Indies World Cup squad, has long listed the big Jamaican as the player he idolized the most over the years.  Gayle arguably the most dominant batsman to ever play the format leads many of the boundary-hitting statistics, including the most sixes with 1056.

The United Soccer League and the Caribbean Football Union last Wednesday announced a new long-term partnership that will help shape the future of the game across the Caribbean Football Union’s 31 member nations. The wide-ranging agreement will create more professional opportunities for Caribbean players, coaches, referees, and front office staff in the USL Championship and USL League One.

The two organizations will collaborate to increase and enhance player scouting across the Caribbean region including at events such as the Caribbean Club Championship and Caribbean Cup. Soon, the USL will create and announce details of a combine for select players from across the CFU member nations to compete in front of USL technical staffs.

The USL will support the CFU’s endeavour to build certification programs for coaches, sporting directors and executives designed to boost professional development and open the door to coaching opportunities in the USL. USL Sporting Director Mark Cartwright and club technical staff will share best practices on an ongoing basis with their counterparts in Caribbean professional leagues.

The USL and CFU will explore development opportunities for Caribbean referees within the USL ecosystem, from the youth to the professional ranks.

The USL will welcome CFU executives to league meetings where they will have the opportunity to participate in educational sessions and meet and interact with the owners and executives from USL’s league office and clubs. The CFU will provide USL executives the same opportunity at meetings or events it may conduct throughout the year.

“Caribbean football has made tremendous contributions to the USL over the years and this partnership creates an exciting opportunity to augment that legacy,” said USL President Jake Edwards. “We are thrilled to work with the Caribbean Football Union and its members to grow the sport throughout the region and impact our communities together.” 

Caribbean players have featured prominently in the USL’s history. In the Championship’s 11 seasons, three league MVPs have hailed from countries that are members of the CFU (Yordany Alvarez/Cuba, 2011; Kevin Molino/Trinidad and Tobago, 2012/2014; Dane Kelly/Jamaica, 2017), while Kelly and fellow Jamaican Kenardo Forbes are the current all-time leaders in Championship history in regular-season goals and assists respectively.

This past year, both Forbes and fellow Jamaican Neco Brett were voted to the Championship’s All-League Team, while 39 players from the Championship and League One were selected to compete by 14 countries within the CFU to play at the senior international level.

“We in the Caribbean Football Union are both pleased and excited by this partnership. Part of our role in the CFU is to lobby for our member associations in all spheres and to court opportunity for administrators, coaches, players and our referees. This agreement does just that, opening pathways for the CFU, and it brings to the USL a tangible benefit, because our people in the Caribbean have the ability to add value wherever they are placed. This collaboration marries talent with opportunity. Everyone wins,” said CFU President Randolph Harris.

The partnership will see the USL look to offer opportunities for training, exposure, and career development both at the USL’s league office and with the league’s clubs for students enrolled at CFU Knowledge Zone—an online training initiative of the CFU. 

Reggae Girlz forward Tiffany Cameron has been named the Player of the Year by the Hungarian Football Federation for the 2021-22 season.

Cameron, 30, was announced as the winner at the HLSZ Gala Dinner on Monday after scoring 23 goals and providing 10 assists to help her club Ferencvarosi TC win the Noi NB I, the premier women’s league in Hungary, by 14 points.

She joined Ferencvarosi in 2020 after a season in Norway with Staebek. Cameron has also played club football in Germany, Sweden, Cyprus and the USA in her career.

The Canadian-born striker, who can also play midfield, has made twelve appearances for the Reggae Girlz, scoring five goals.