CARIBBEAN defending champions Chris Binnie of Jamaica along with five other team members will be in action today as the 2012 Caribbean Area Squash Association (CASA) Individual championships for men’s and women’s singles begin in Trinidad & Tobago.

The individual event will feature men’s and women’s singles with the final scheduled to be played next Tuesday. The team event for men’s, women’s and veteran’s are scheduled to get underway next Wednesday.

Jamaica’s Binnie, along with team manager Douglas Beckford, Bruce Burrowes, Alyssa Mullings, and Tracy Binnie left the island on Thursday for the individual singles, while the remainder of the team is expected to leave on Monday for the team events for men’s and women’s.

Beckford, Jamaica’s top veteran, will be attempting to retain his Over-60-year veteran’s singles title.

The other Caribbean countries participating in the individual and team events are overall team defending champions Barbados, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Guyana, Venezuela, Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), and hosts Trinidad & Tobago.

Binnie, who is the Caribbean number one and defending champion and current All-Jamaica’s singles champion, said he is confident of retaining his men’s singles title won last year in the Cayman Island.

The 24-years-old Jamaican said he will be looking for his third triumph of the men’s singles, after winning it for the first time in 2008 at 18-year-old before losing it to Richard Chin of Guyana 3-1 in the final in 2009, and regaining it last year with victory over his former conqueror 3-1 in the final.

“It will not be that easy as there are other good players in the men’s section who are playing squash professionally and are world ranked, but I am very confident I can pull it off again despite the stiff challenges expected,” Binnie said.