Tony Becca, Contributing Editor

( L - R ) Marlon Samuels, Lendl Simmons

JAMAICA TAKE on Trinidad and Tobago in the five-day showdown for the regional Carib Beer Challenge Trophy at Sabina Park, starting today.

For many reasons, there should be some sizzling action before the winners are decided some time on Monday or probably even before.

Reason number one is that the showdown brings together Jamaica - the winners of the more prestigious Carib Beer Cup and Trinidad and Tobago - the runners-up for the Cup and the defending champions of the Trophy.

Best teams

Reason number two is that although Barbados won the Cup last year, the two teams - Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago - are arguably the best in the region. Jamaica won both the Cup and Trophy in 2005 and Trinidad and Tobago did likewise in 2006; Trinidad and Tobago won the Trophy last year, and the KFC one-day tournament in February 2007; Jamaica won it in October 2007, and Jamaica won the Cup this year.

Reason number three is that although captain Chris Gayle is absent, with players like Wavell Hinds, Marlon Samuels, Brenton Parchment and Danza Hyatt, plus the fighting Brendon Nash, as batsmen in Jamaica's line-up along with Jerome Taylor, Daren Powell, Nikita Miller and Odean Brown as bowlers, the hosts look strong.

With batsmen like Lendl Simmons, Adrian Barath, Kieron Pollard and Gibran Mohammed, plus captain Daren Ganga, with bowlers like Ravi Rampaul, Rayad Emrit, Dave Mohammed and Amit Jaggernauth parading their skills for Trinidad and Tobago in the absence of all-rounder Dwayne Bravo, the visitors are also strong and the possibilities for a good contest are endless.

As far as the contest between the bat and the ball is concerned, however, when it comes to the length of the contest, reason number four could be the most important of all.

The pitch

Reason number four is the pitch - and especially so when one remembers the state of the pitch during the last Test match played at Sabina Park and during the last club match there.

In the low-scoring Test match in July 2006, India scored 200 and 171, the West Indies scored 103 and 219, and they lost the match by 49 runs. In the more recent club match, in another low-scoring game on April 12 and 13, Melbourne scored 125 and 125, Kingston CC scored 140 and 86, and the home team lost by 24 runs.

Although the pitch prepared for today's game is neither the one that was used for the Test match nor the one used for the club match, but instead the one sandwiched between the two, no one really knows how it will play.

For the captains, therefore, for Ganga of Trinidad and Tobago and Tamar Lambert of Jamaica, last night may have been a long night as they deliberated on their teams for today's contest and, especially, their bowling combinations.

Offspinner Jaggernauth, the competition's leading bowler with 40 wickets at an average of 14.40, and left-arm wrist spinner Mohammed with 16 at 28.86, are both'sure' picks for the Trinidad and Tobago side. And with pacers Rampaul, Richard Kelly and Emrit to support them, Ganga may not have a problem. Not so, however, Lambert and his selectors.

While pacers Taylor and Powell are sure to play, and so too left-arm spinner Miller, who boasts 32 wickets at an average of 15.71, Lambert, chairman Ruddy Williams and company may have spent a long time deciding not only what to do with Xavier Marshall - whether he should play and open the innings or whether Hyatt should move up and make it easier to select the middle-order, but also whether they should include legspinner Brown, who started with the season with a bang before fading away, or the medium-pace all-rounder David Bernard Jr.

More than a wicket or two

With Nash around to lend some assistance with his left-arm medium-pacers, however, with Samuels unable to bowl, with Lambert not good enough as an offspinner to really expect more than a wicket or two from him on his day, the selectors would be well advised to go in with an attack of two genuine pacers and two genuine spin bowlers, with Taylor and Powell, Miller and Brown and with Nash and Lambert to assist.