A confident 14-member Jamaican team departed the island yesterday en route to Guyana, where they will be aspiring to retain both their West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Regional Under-19 titles.

The tournament, which will bowl off today, will see the Jamaicans playing under grossly undesirable conditions, as they are scheduled to arrive in Guyana at 3:00 am, before opening their three-day title defence against arch-rivals Barbados at Everest a mere seven hours later.

Under normal circumstances the team would have arrived in Guyana two days prior to the competition, and according to coach Robert Samuels, this will be a slight hindrance for them.

“That will be a setback for us, but that is the way the West Indies Cricket Board has set it up for us and we will just have to work with the plan.

“I am not too sure if any changes will be made or can be made, but the manager and myself will try our best to ensure that the boys are prepared and ready mentally and physically to take the field tomorrow morning (today), although we are only going to get about four hours sleep,” he told the Jamaica Observer before the team’s departure from Sabina Park yesterday.

Another issue for the team is the inadequate net sessions in training, but that aside, Samuels is optimistic about the stability and high quality of the team.

“Our expectation leaving Jamaica every single time is to go to a tournament and win that tournament. It is a very balanced team; we have three pace bowlers…in the spin department we have off-spinners, leg spinners and a left-arm spinner to go along with our batsmen. We are ready and the boys can play cricket, so we are going there to play to the best of our ability and once the boys execute we will be all right,” he explained.

With the format of the tournament being revamped, allowing for more limited-overs cricket, and only three rounds of matches in the three-day edition, Jamaica will not face Trinidad & Tobago; neither will hosts Guyana take on traditional rivals Barbados. The team with the most points at the end of the three rounds will emerge champions.

However, the limited-overs competition has been scheduled to go seven rounds, with a composite ICC Americas side set to join the six territorial teams for the tournament, where the top two teams will meet in the final.

The Ramaal Lewis-led squad comprises four newcomers — Oshane Thomas, Odean Smith, George Walker and Ramone Francis, who is the youngest member of the team at 15 years old. Other members of the team are Nicholas Walters, Leroy Lugg, Odane McCatty, Romaine Morris, Ryan Burnett, Shahid Crooks, Abhaijai Mansingh, Mark Parchment and Gareth Henry.

Lewis told the Observer that they will be aiming to create history, as the country has never been successful in defending both titles at this level.

“Our expectations are high; we have five players from last year and five players who have represented the country at the Under-17 level before, so we are just looking at the two titles. Jamaica has never won the two titles back-to-back, and away from home again, so we are just looking forward to that,” said a confident Lewis.