Lambert and Brown

St Catherine Cricket Club dedicated its Red Stripe 20/20 triumph to their suspended players, captain Tamar Lambert and Bevon Brown.

They were suspended by the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) for their roles in a controversial fixture in the all-island Super Cup competition that was won by Manchester.

"One of the other motivating factors for us was for Tamar and Bevon who were suspended and we ensured we had to win this for them," said the Saints' coach, Ephraim McLeod.

McLeod also said the players wanted to prove a point that " ... we have depth and even without those two players we could still win something and give them a present."

St Catherine defeated Manchester in the final at Sabina Park three Saturdays ago, a day after they beat Hanover in the semis. Both matches were played at Sabina Park.

McLeod said it was important for them to win this competition, not only because it carried prize money of $500,000, but because "we at St Catherine wanted to stamp our name and authority on this competition for the first time ... so we were prepared for it".

He said they were prepared for it and were focused throughout the six weeks of competition.

"Everybody was keyed-up for it, especially since we missed out on the Super Cup ... and with good teamwork and support from everyone we pulled it off," continued McLeod, manager of the national Under-15 team.

"We missed out on the Super Cup so this was another chance to show our class. It was a new trophy and we want to be the front-runner," added McLeod, who is also a national senior selector. "We planned and did our homework on the teams and it paid off in the end."