Sat | Sep 6, 2025

New-look Kingston Wharves U15 cricket final on today at Ultimate Cricket Ground

Published:Friday | August 29, 2025 | 12:11 AM
Stakeholders in the Kingston Wharves Under-15 Cricket Competition share a happy moment prior to the start of the competition – (from left) Simone Murdock – corporate and client experience manager at Kingston Wharves, Captain Marlon Saunders of the Jam
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Stakeholders in the Kingston Wharves Under-15 Cricket Competition share a happy moment prior to the start of the competition – (from left) Simone Murdock – corporate and client experience manager at Kingston Wharves, Captain Marlon Saunders of the Jamaica Defence Force, Mark Williams – CEO at Kingston Wharves, Ansel Crawford – captain of Kingston, and Damario Lee, captain of Melbourne, Fritz Harris – first vice-president at Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA), and Courtney Francis – chief executive officer of the JCA.

The 2025 Kingston Wharves U15 cricket competition, Middlesex versus Surrey, will be played today at the Ultimate Cricket Ground in St Ann.

The competition was reformatted this year to identify the best set of cricketers early, while playing the same number of matches during the preliminary phase of the competition, and then start the process of getting them ready for next year’s regional competition. The aim is to get better results than what has been happening in recent times, with a longer and more targeted team preparation.

Oneil Cruickshank, the cricket operations manager at the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA), who outlined the new format prior to the start of the competition, said “it’s tinkered with and we’re trying to get it right and we’re also responding to things that are happening around us”.

Cruickshank said the plan was to return to a previous format where they had an inter-parish first phase and then the county selectors selected a team for the county. He said the intent was to begin to identify the boys earlier, not just for the next cycle of regional tournament but for two years down the road. “So that’s what we’ve done now and that’s why we have changed the format to move away from just the parish teams, to have a creaming off, if you like, to have an inter-county competition,” Cruickshank said.

This year, in partnership with the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF), there was a pilot project in the Surrey region where, every non-match day, the youngsters went to the JDF to do some non-cricket sessions.

Captain Marlon Saunders of the JDF outlined their contribution to the competition.

“So what we’ve done is that we’ve started a summer camp in partnership with Kingston Wharves. We sought to have an influence on the youth through cricket. We were able to have this programme up and running, and it’s one of the key things because, what it does, it captures all the individuals who participate in the Kingston area. The programme is one where we have some of our counsellors and senior personnel have mentorship sessions with these individuals, and we try to chart their characters and also to have that significant footprint on their lives and the discipline as it relates to not just only being a sportsman, but being an overall good individual, and how to posture themselves,” Captain Samuels said.

The Kingston Wharves’ CEO Mark Williams was happy with his company’s sponsorship of the competition for the 34th year.

“It’s just our privilege to sponsor this competition. We want to be a part of Jamaica’s development and we have chosen a path, this path is through cricket. But it’s more than just cricket for us. It’s developing the youngster, building character, commitment and a sense of excellence, and that’s why we do this competition,” Williams said.