The Jamaica 13-man cricket squad will be selected today before the team departs tomorrow for Port of Spain, where they will face Trinidad & Tobago at the Queen’s Park Oval in the fifth round of the regional four-day tournament, starting on Friday.

An 18-member training squad fine-tuned over the weekend at Sabina Park in Kingston.

Noticeably missing from the training squad is the quartet of all-rounder Andre Russell, wicketkeeper Carlton Baugh and batsmen Danza Hyatt and Marlon Samuels.

The players have been drafted into a West Indies training camp preparing for the forthcoming One-Day and Twenty20 International series against the visiting Australia team.

Of the four, Baugh is the likeliest to be available for Jamaica’s four-day match since in recent times Trinidadian Denesh Ramdin has been the preferred gloveman for the regional team in the shorter formats.

National head coach Junior Bennett told the Observer that emphasis was placed on fielding and added that a training group of that size is necessary because fringe players may be called upon if and when senior members are summoned for West Indies duties.

“In training we want to cover all the basic areas, but we have to pay a lot of attention to fielding because we have seen some weaknesses in that area.

“These players that we have are very important because at some point between now and the semi-final we may need some of them. There is likely to be a disruption because some players may be called to play for the West Indies,” he said.

Captained by Tamar Lambert, Jamaica are already through to the semi-final stage and are seeking a record fifth straight four-day title. They recorded home wins against the Windward Islands, Barbados and the Leeward Islands, respectively, and also beat Guyana in Antigua in the previous round to lead the preliminary standings on maximum 48 points.

T&T are 20 points behind, but have a game in hand. The Guyanese team are joint third with Barbados on 24.

The top two teams at the end of the preliminary phase will secure home advantage for the semis.

Ja training squad –Tamar Lambert (capt), Brenton Parchment, Simon Jackson, Donovan Pagon, Brendan Nash, David Bernard, Nikita Miller, Andrew Richardson, Odean Brown, Sheldon Cotterell, Jamie Merchant, Xavier Marshall, Jermaine Blackwood, Horace Miller, Maverick Perry, Gavin Wallace, Brian Buchanan, Nicholson Gordon.