Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) President Dr Donovan Bennett says he’s not overly disappointed with the absence of regional four-day games being held on the island this year, although admitting this will be a loss for the cricket community locally.

The West Indies Championship, which runs from January 29 to April 12, will see the Jamaica Scorpions and seven other regional teams battle for the four-day title.

However, the majority of the games will take place outside of Jamaica with matches scheduled for Guyana, Trinidad, Barbados, Antigua, St Kitts, St Lucia, Dominica, and St Vincent. Sabina Park will only have one match this year when the Scorpions take on defending champions Guyana Harpy Eagles from March 5-8.

In the 2024 season, Jamaica hosted nine four-day games across Sabina Park, Chedwin Park and Kensington Park, largely due to other regional stadiums being prepared for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup last summer.

While it won’t be a major blow for the JCA, Dr Bennett told the Jamaica Observer that the impact will mostly be felt by persons who gain employment from local games.

“There’s some loss of revenue because we get a subvention from the West Indies board which for the most part is adequate to host the games. Even though you won’t make a profit, what happens is that a lot of people are employed in putting on a game,” he said.

“The grounds staff, the security, the people who provide food, the people who provide transportation and so on. Those people, of course, have benefits because they get an income from it. So though the JCA doesn’t make a profit from the games, the wider community does get some benefit.”

However, he says he fully understands the decision made by Cricket West Indies.

“I’m happy with it, I don’t have a problem with it. The board who sets up these tournaments have to look at cost also. Jamaica is some distance from the rest of the Caribbean which means higher airfares, etc, so that’s why you’ll find only one game is scheduled for this year.”

Since his appointment as president last year, Dr Bennett has advocated for more regional and international cricket to be played on the island. Though local fans won’t be able to experience the matches in person, Bennett is expecting more in 2026.

“You’re not going to have it your way all the time, we had a lot of games last year. We don’t have a lot of games this year so that’s how it goes; you can’t have everything all the time,” he said.

“The games have to go around the Caribbean and we’re part of a wider body and everybody wants to be part of the action so we wouldn’t want Jamaica to get majority of games year after year. We had a very good year last year, we have an off year this year and hopefully next year, we’ll have a lot more games.”

Despite having home advantage last year, the Scorpions, under then head coach Andrew Richardson, lost five of their seven matches which saw them finish seventh in the eight-team standings.

This season, Dr Bennett is looking for a vast improvement under new head coach Robert Haynes.

“We’re coming from the bottom so we can only go up. Even if we don’t win, I would want to see Jamaica putting in a much better performance this year than they did last year. This is really all I’m asking for — to become competitive, be taken seriously and end up somewhere around the top half of the standings,” he said.

The Scorpions open their season against the Windward Islands Volcanoes next Wednesday at the Arnos Vale Stadium in St Vincent.