The Kingston Wharves Under-15 competition has over the past 30 years have impacted the lives of many of Jamaica’s past and present cricketers to the extent where many have gone on to become regional and global stars.

Launched in 1989, the competition aided in the development and exposure of the likes of Chris Gayle, Wavell Hinds, Chadwick Walton and Paul Palmer Jr, among others.

Now celebrating its 30th milestone, this year’s edition promises to bear future local, regional and international stars as approximately 400 of the country’s best Under-15 players will parade their skills in this year’s edition for possible selection to the national setup ahead of next year’s regional Under-15 tournament.

An increased sponsorship of $6 million, coupled with a slight expansion, will ensure that these young players reap more from the competition, with the ultimate goal being to make that big break into the national squad.

It is on this merit that Kingston Wharves CEO Grantley Stephenson based his company’s continued commitment to the competition and by extension the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA).

In addition to their sponsorship, Kingston Wharves will also provide book vouchers for all players in the August 29 final. The competition got underway on Wednesday, but was officially launched yesterday when the long-time sponsor announced a $200,000 top up on their $5.8 million backing from last year.

“We continue to do it because we see the fruits of our labour, people actually benefit from it, the country benefits and the region benefits. So it’s something very worthwhile.

“Not only that but, we believe in developing our young people, in fact all our activities relating to our corporate social responsibility have to do with young people and so we are committed to this competition and we will always continue to support it,” Stephenson told the Jamaica Observer.

This year’s edition of the 40-over tournament, which separates the participating teams in four zones of five teams each, will include a quarter-final round for the first time since its inception.

Following round-robin play, the top two teams from each zone will now progress to the knockout phase as opposed to previous stagings where only the zone winner advanced.

Lucas Cricket Club, the former home of Jamaica and West Indies star Gayle, are the defending champions.

Wilford ‘Billy’ Heaven, JCA’s president, lauded Kingston Wharves for its long-standing support in ensuring that Jamaica’s age-group talents have more opportunities to sharpen their technical skills on the field, while developing the necessary off-field characteristics.

“Cricket is more than a sport, it is a tool for social change and a multi-billion-dollar global business, everything must be done to protect its legacy and ensure its longevity. Kingston Wharves is doing just that here in Jamaica and we want to really thank them for believing in us and supporting Jamaica’s cricket,” Heaven noted.

He added: “It’s a great sense of commitment by Kingston Wharves to be supporting Jamaica’s cricket through thick and thin because it is not all the time we have been doing particularly well, but they have shown that commitment to the development of cricket which is significant.

“We have seen the impact of this competition on our development stages of cricket with many of our national players having come through this competition, so it’s significant to us at the JCA at the foundation level of cricket.”

Meanwhile, with the regional Under-15 tournament scheduled to be contested in March, O’Neil Cruickshank, JCA’s operations manager, pointed out that they will be watching keenly the talents on show.

“We are really looking forward to this competition because we have seen some strides being made in our youth programme based on the initiatives that we have taken the last two years and we are looking for it to continue.

“So these youngsters are going to be important to us because some of these guys are going to be involved in the national Under-15 team for next year’s regional tournament,” he shared.