The Bermuda Cricket Board is shaking things up by starting the season with a T20 Champion of Champions competition at Somerset Cricket Club this weekend.

To herald the new cricket season, the winners of the respective T20 leagues last season will play against the T20 knockout champions in a feast of cricket on Saturday in the West End.

Steven Douglas, high performance director at the Bermuda Cricket Board, outlined the format of the day.

“We’re having a Champion of Champions to start the season at Somerset on April 25,” Douglas told The Royal Gazette.

“Last year’s T20 league champions will play T20 knockout champions in both divisions. “For the Premier Division, it will be St David’s versus St George’s.

“In the First Division, Southampton Rangers won both and Western Stars were the runners-up.

“But being that Western Stars are not in the league this season, the third-place team, PHC, who have also been promoted to the Premier Division in T20, will play Southampton Rangers in the first game.

“We have set aside Sunday as the rain date.”

Douglas pointed out that BCB has adopted the from football, where the league champions play the FA Cup winners in the Charity Cup in a precursor to the season.

“The BCB is trying to do something to kick-start the season, similar to football, where a Charity Cup is played at the beginning,” he said.

“We think by doing this it gives people something to look forward to for the next year. It gives four teams that will start the season off early and also help get one or two grounds really early to host the games.

“The good thing about playing the T20 first is that we need only three fields. We will definitely have one more field for the game on May 2 and 3.

“As soon as we can get three fields by maybe May 2 or May 9, then it’ll be better for us to run our league.

“After that, by the time the 50-over starts, everybody should be up and running, a lot more consistent.”

After the Champion of Champions matches, the week after will feature national team players who were meant to travel to Cayman Islands early this month for the North American Cup, squaring off against each other in a number of friendly matches.

“The week after there will be a select game for the team that was supposed to go to the North American Cup, which has been rescheduled,” the BCB cricket committee chairman said.

“The guys put a lot of time into training, so they’re looking to play some cricket. It gives the selectors, along with the consultant Andre Coley, a chance to look at the players in a more intense game.

“We’ll have a game with the 25 that are training and between them two teams will play games on May 2 and 3.

“With the North American Cup rescheduled to September, I think we’ll have a similar game between the national players right after the league ends.”

With Bermuda hosting the T20 World Cup Americas Sub-Regional Qualifier in June, the only cricket played up to that period will be the shorter version of the game.

“Everything up until the ICC tournament will be T20,” Douglas said.

“The T20 league will officially start on May 9 and there will be games on back-to-back days, Saturday and Sunday. We are trying as much as we can to simulate the tournament.

“The tournament will have back-to-back days also, so guys can get their legs running for back-to-back days in the league, which will help them to prepare for the tournament in June.

“League cricket will take a break for the Bermuda Smash Invitational, which takes place from May 30 to June 6. After the ICC tournament, the 50-over league will start.

“First Division in the 50-over will only have five teams this year and Premier Division will have seven.

“What it would mean is that we will play two rounds of 50 overs in the First Division and one round of 50 overs in the Premier Division.

“People cry for more cricket, but we’ve got to be honest about numbers. We did have a survey last year and people don’t have a lot of numbers.

“Most people say today with the climate and the economy, people struggle to find teams for Saturday and Sunday.

“It’s OK for a short version of cricket, the T20, because they’re in a short period of time. But when it comes to the 50-overs and a full day it’s pretty hard for clubs to have two teams back-to-back for two days of cricket.

“We would give them the actual cricket that they’re looking for if we could but they struggle to have the numbers.”

Commenting on the decision by Stars to pull out of senior league cricket for this season, Douglas commended the club for being honest and proactive.

“It would be up to us, the BCB and the cricket committee to meet with Western Stars and see what plans they have going forward,” he said.

“It’s sad to see a team of that stature pulling out of the league, but at least they said they will not have a team rather than say they would play but not be able to field a team after so many games.

“In fairness, I have to applaud them for being strong enough to take the decision early and I am sure they will work very hard and prepare to have a team for next year.

“They told us what they were doing and officially notified us. We’re looking to help clubs like Stars by having more cricket played in schools.

“Hopefully, there’s fringe players who may not be able to make a team directly in the community. If guys really wanted to play some cricket, then a club like Western Stars would benefit from such players.”