Scotiabank Jamaica continued its long-standing association with prep school cricket with yet another $3 million sponsorship announced at Lucas Cricket Club on Wednesday.

The competition is now in its 12th season with Scotiabank as title sponsor since 2005 in what has become known as the JCA/Scotiabank Prep School Cricket Competition.

At Wednesday’s launch Sponsorship Manager at Scotiabank Shelly Skyes-Coley reiterated the bank’s commitment to the programme.

“Scotiabank supports prep school cricket because we want you not only be better cricketers, but be better persons,” Skyes-Coley told the youngsters in attendance.

“We want you to grow, corporate with others and maintain a positive perspective on life and apply all the great life lessons that you can learn from it. We really want this experience to make a difference in your life,” she said.

Forty-three teams, amounting to 660 boys and girls, will compete in this year’s edition for the Maurice Foster Trophy. Teams are segmented into zones across the counties of Cornwall, Middlesex and Surrey.

At the end of the preliminary round, which started on Wednesday in Middlesex and Surrey, zone winners will advance to the knockout phase to determine the county winners. Action in Cornwall had started before.

All three county champions are then joined by the Surrey runners-up for the national semi-finals, to determine the national champion.

Matches are limited to a scheduled 25 overs-per-side. However, a tie-breaker is applicable for the knockout segment.

Bursaries of $50,000 each will be awarded to the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of each county, a trend that started in 2011.

“It (the sponsorship) has been very beneficial because the monies that it provides ensure that the game is played and played to a certain standard. Scotia, by being a part of it, helps also to raise the profile of the competition,” said Nigel Logan, honorary treasurer at the Jamaica Cricket Association, the local governing body of the game.

There are over 100 prep schools across the country and with one team less than last year participating, Logan said the aim is to have greater participation which would increase the national selection pool.