THE Berbice Cricket Board’s 2011 first division cricket season gets under way this weekend with the start of two first division limited-over competitions, performances from which will be used as a yardstick to identify the Berbice team for the upcoming El Dorado Inter-county Tournament. The first round of the Anirud Ramcharitar 50- overs knockout competition is scheduled to start today, while the Tenelec Inc. 50 overs round-robin competition will get under way tomorrow with four matches.
This year, with regulars Scottsburg United and Rose Hall Community Centre withdrawing because of administrative reasons, 10 teams will be participating in both tournaments and these are: Edinburgh, Blairmont Community Centre, Bermine, Police, Young Warriors, West Berbice, Albion Community Centre, Rose Hall Town Gizmos and Gadgets, Port Mourant Karibee Rice and Skeldon Community Centre.
For the first time since the 2004 BCB/Upper Corentyne Business Community Competition, the BCB has decided to do away with the zone system for the round robin, resulting in all ten teams scheduled to play one another in the Tenelec Inc Competition.
Both competitions will be played with teams using coloured clothes, white balls and black sight screens and also with all of the latest ODI playing conditions in force.
Today’s fixtures with umpires in bracket read: Police meet  Skeldon Community Centre at Cumberland (Augustus Outar and Sean Coonjah), Rose Hall Town Gizmos and Gadgets face Young Warriors at Rose Hall Town (Gangapersaud Shivdyal and Zaheer Moakan), Edinburgh  take on  West Berbice at Edinburgh (Rafik Latif and Jai Hardeo) and Port Mourant Karibee Rice clash with  Blairmont Community Centre at Port Mourant (Roshan Moakan and John King).
A fifth match between Albion Community Centre and Bermine was postponed to a later date to allow Albion to fulfil their commitments in the National Tapeball competition.
In the Tenelec Inc. competition, first round action will see Young Warriors oppose Police at Cumberland (Zaheer Moakan and Roshan Moakan), West Berbice  face Blairmont Community Centre at Bush Lot (Moses Ramphal and Rafik Latif), Port Mourant Karibee Rice meet Albion Community Centre at Port Mourant (Jai Hardeo and Imran Moakan) and Rose Hall Town Gizmos and Gadgets take on Skeldon Community Centre at Area ‘H’ (Sean Coonjah and Joseph Simon).
The match between Edinburgh and Bermine had to be postponed because of the unavailability of the Edinburgh ground. All matches listed above are scheduled to start at 0930hrs, weather permitting.