The 2025 Cricket West Indies (CWI) Rising Stars Men’s Under-19 Championship will take place in St. Kitts and Nevis at the end of this month.
The competition, which has been hosted annually in St. Vincent since 2018, will be returning to St. Kitts and Nevis from June 30 to July 25 this year.
Matches will be played across five venues. They are the Len Harris Cricket Academy, Conaree Sports Club, St. Mary’s Park in Cayon, St. Paul’s Cricket Ground in St. Kitts, and the Elquemedo Willett Park in Nevis.
The regional under-19 tournament, which was last hosted in St. Kitts and Nevis in 2017, will also see a change in format with only a 50-over competition.
In recent years, the regional under-19 tournament comprised a 50-over championship in conjunction with a three-day or two-day competition.
The regional under-19 tournament commenced with a three-day tournament in 1976, and the 50-over contest was inaugurated in 1998 in Trinidad and Tobago as a replacement for the washed-out three-day competition.
Barbados will be the defending champions after capturing the double, winning both the two-day and 50-over contests at last year’s tournament in St. Vincent.
Two teams from the United States will be joining the six regional territorial teams in the competition. It is not the first time an overseas team is taking part in the tournament.
Canada’s under-19 team participated in the 50-over championship in the 2018 regional under-19 tournament in St. Vincent.
The eight teams in this year’s competition will contest seven round-robin matches. The top two teams at the end of the round-robin stage will advance to the final, which will take place on Thursday, July 24.
The other teams will also have a final round of matches to determine third place, fifth place, and seventh place on July 24.
The competition will bowl off with the opening round of matches on Thursday, July 3.
Champions Barbados will launch the defence of their title against Guyana at the Elquemedo Willett Park in Nevis.
The Leeward Islands will begin their campaign against the Windward Islands at Conaree.
In the other two opening round matches, Jamaica will tackle USA 1 at St. Mary’s Park in Cayon, and Trinidad and Tobago will clash with USA 2 at St. Paul’s Cricket Ground.
