LAST season’s Super Cricket League winners Manchester will host Clarendon at Kirkvine Sports Club in Group B of today’s opening round of matches in the restructured Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) two-day club competition.

Traditional Corporate Area rivals Melbourne and last season’s Senior Cup champions Kensington will also lock horns in a marquee Group D match at Derrymore Road.

Play will commence at 10:00 am each day.

The top-tier semi-professional Super Cricket League, which existed for three seasons, has been merged with the long-standing Senior Cup to form what is called the National Senior Cup Championships.

A total of 22 teams, comprising nine clubs and 13 parish associations, split into four geographic groups, will contest in a preliminary round phase.

Teams in each of the four groups will play the other once. Each group winner will then advance to the semi-final stage, before the championship match, which is scheduled for Sabina Park in early July.

JCA director Randy Nelson told the Observer that though serious consideration was given to having more matches for each team, economic constraints limited the Association to this restructured format.

“We had planned an initial revamp but because of lack of funds we had to make this kind of change. We always want to have more games being played but given the economic conditions the Board was forced to go with this format. I’m still expecting the competition to be a success,” he said.