Jamaican schools Excelsior High, May Day High, and Tacky High are preparing to participate in an age-group Twenty20 cricket tournament scheduled for Tampa, Florida, November 15-23.

Delroy Bent, a Jamaican listed as coordinator for the Tampa Premier League Youth tournament, told the Jamaica Observer that cricket academies from regions on the US east coast have been “confirmed”. Others from Bermuda and Canada have also been invited — though so far unconfirmed, he said.

The period of the youth tournament embraces the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend in the United States.

Bent said organisers have received the blessing of the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) which oversees sporting competitions, including cricket, among Jamaican schools.

Checks with Excelsior, May Day and Tacky suggested they have all either finalised travel arrangements for their student cricketers or are now in the process of doing so.

Bent said the aim is to make the Tampa tournament an annual event providing “exposure and development” for young cricketers in the United States and its neighbours.

He visualised that over the long term it will evolve into “something along the lines of the [world-famous] Penn Relays” in the United States. The Penn Relays is said to be the oldest track and field competition in the USA , held annually in April since 1895.

Cricket is among the fastest-growing sports in the United States, driven by the huge migrant population from India and the wider Indian subcontinent, as well as people from other cricket-playing regions, including the Caribbean.

Cricket leaders at the three Jamaican schools hailed the upcoming tournament in Tampa as an opportunity to boost the popularity and growth of cricket.

“This [tournament] is the best thing since sliced bread for the boys,” said an enthused Sheldon Pryce, coach of Tacky High, based in St Mary.

“Encouragement strengthens labour…and the opportunity to travel and experience overseas conditions will encourage more students to want to play cricket,” he said.

Stanford Davis, principal of Mandeville-based May Day, and Kirkland Bailey, coach of Excelsior, voiced similar sentiments.

“I think this will definitely entice more youngsters to cricket,” said Davis, identified by knowledgeable observers as the driving force behind May Day High’s startling run to the final of the all-rural Grace Headley Cup in April against many-time champions St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS).

For May Day High, the achievement came after just a few years playing cricket at a formal level.

Bailey, who guided Excelsior — based on Mountain View Avenue in east Kingston — to the final of the Grace Shield as well as the all-island T20 competition earlier this year, said the school’s “cricket family” was excited at the “opportunity for exposure” overseas.

“It may help more youngsters to be drawn to the sport,” he said.

Alarm has been on the rise in recent years caused by the rapid decline in participation by Jamaican high schools in the various cricket competitions. The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which largely shut down group sport and recreational activities in 2020 and 2021, made the situation much worse.

Just 41 schools are said to have played Under-19 cricket across Jamaica in the 2023 season.

In a pitch for sponsorship for the Tampa youth cricket festival, Bent told the Observer that the products of commercial/business partners will be on show at games.

“Jamaican products need the exposure and this is a very good opportunity,” he said.