The Jamaica Squash Association (JSA) and KPMG have joined forces for the 24th time to launch the long-running KPMG League which will feature 16 teams this year. The launch was held recently at the association’s base at the Liguanea Club in New Kingston.

There was a mood of heightened excitement for this year’s staging of the league after last year’s successful post-COVID-19 return. Advantage General Insurance (AGI) were the dominant team then, but there is one change to their line-up which could make the difference this year.

Karen Anderson, the president of the JSA, expects an intriguing tussle for the title.

“We see some really strong teams that have registered for the event and I think we will see an upset or two, and so we are extremely excited to see how the matches will play out over the two months of the event,” she said.

The league will run on a handicap system which is used to level the playing field so that everybody will have a chance to play and do well. The teams will play round-robin matches in the first round comprising four teams per group. The top two teams will go to the quarter-final from where all matches going forward will be played on a knockout basis. The other two teams in the group will play in a plate final or final for the losing teams.

Anderson announced that the association will introduce a software to run the league fully for the first time.

“The association will be running it using the software that we have, the sportyhq software, which will help us to be a bit more efficient in getting our results out and in the efficiency of the play because now people can follow live. We are trying to be innovative in how we bring [something] new and different to a league that has been running for 24 years.”

Additionally, Anderson welcomed new sponsor Wata to provide hydration throughout the league. She thanked title sponsor KPMG for this year’s investment of $550,000. She said the money will help the association to take up the cost of staging all the matches while relieving the teams of the cost of hosting matches.

Rajan Trehan, country managing partner of KPMG, credited the league for its continued high contribution to developing young players in the game of squash in Jamaica.

“We believe in the development of youth as well as sports and we have adopted squash as one of the sports to make sure that we contribute in the development of squash in particular,” Trehan said.

Dave Morrison of defending champions AGI was upbeat about the league.

“Last year was really satisfying. We have never always done well because the nature of the tournament kinda ensures that regardless of the quality of players you have, it’s all eliminated or equalised because of the handicap structure. But last year we really came out with a certain level of determination,” he said.

The league was scheduled to serve off Thursday evening at the Liguanea Club. The competition is set to end on April 19.