Hubbry Logo
search
logo

Super50 Cup

logo
Community Hub0 Subscribers
Write something...
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
See all
Super50 Cup


The Super50 Cup, currently named the CG Insurance Super50 Cup for sponsorship purposes is the domestic one-day cricket competition in the West Indies. It was previously known as the KFC Cup until the fast food chain pulled out of sponsorship in 2008 and the WICB Cup until 2011. Afterwards it was known as the Regional Super50 until 2014 when NAGICO Insurance became the title sponsor and it became the NAGICO Regional Super50 until 2021. In recent years it has been run in a condensed format with the group stage taking place over approximately two to three weeks, immediately followed by the knock-out stages. Trinidad and Tobago have won the most titles – 14, including one shared).

Twenty-five teams have participated in at least one edition of the competition, with Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago the only teams to have participated in every edition. The Leeward Islands and Windward Islands have competed in every tournament except for four and three tournaments respectively when they were variously divided into other teams such as Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Rest of the Leeward Islands, Rest of the Windward Islands or Northern Windward Islands and Southern Windward Islands.

The first official senior limited overs game in the West Indies was played on 18 March 1970, between a touring Duke of Norfolk's XI and the Barbados team. Three years later, a trial knock-out tournament named the Banks Trophy—which has been given List A status—was arranged between Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, and Barbados beat Guyana in the final by nine runs.

Then, there were no more official one-day competitions until February 1976, when the first official one-day tournament named the Gillette Cup was held between the four teams making up the Banks Trophy, along with the Leeward Islands and the Windward Islands. The Gillette Cup had two groups of three teams, each playing each other once, with the winners progressing to the final. Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, who also shared the 1975–76 Shell Shield, won their groups and met up in the final which Barbados won by 43 runs at Kensington Oval. During the subsequent season, those two said teams eventually faced off in the final, where once again Barbados prevailed.

The next season, the tournament was renamed the Geddes Grant/Harrison Line Trophy, named after two large shipping companies in the area, with Leeward Islands and Jamaica progressing from the two groups. However, the final, scheduled to be held at the Antigua Recreation Ground on 8 April 1977, was rained off, and the teams shared the trophy. A shared trophy has happened twice more in the history of the tournament. Three more teams became winners in the next four seasons, before Jamaica began a row of finals appearances, starting with qualifying for the 1982–83 final. They then turned up in six successive finals from 1983 to 1988, winning three of them to pass Barbados on the all-time winners list.

In 1988–89 the tournament was renamed to the Geddes Grant Shield, and with that, Jamaica's run of finals appearances was ended, as they were knocked out by Windward Islands on run rate per wicket lost. The Windward Islands went on to the final with Guyana, and after being set 155 to win, they lost their first three wickets for five runs. Opener Darwin Telemaque then put on 43 with captain Julian Charles before retiring hurt, and two wickets from Guyana captain Roger Harper sent the Windwards to 85 for 6. Needing 70, and with only three men left, Telemaque returned – only to have two of his partners run out, and the Windwards were 99 for 8. Telemaque stuck in, however, adding 39 with Ian Allen, before number 11 Dominique Lewis came in to bat in his List A debut with 17 needed. It came down to the last over, and the Windwards managed to take the winning runs, becoming one-wicket victors.

The next tournaments were not as close, although Jamaica's win in 1990–91—their fourth in eight seasons, and their last for a further eight—also came down to the last over, but then with four wickets in hand. Then, in 1992–93 the era of the Leeward Islands began. They won three successive titles—admittedly with the first one rained off, but the next two won outright—before fading back to last place in their three-team group in 1995–96, beaten by the two teams who would later try to contest the final, but had to share the trophy due to rain. The tournament was also renamed in 1994–95, becoming the Shell/Sandals Trophy.

The next season saw two new teams for the first time, as Bermuda and Canada joined, but both finished bottom of their groups with neither managing to win any of their six games. Trinidad and Tobago won the tournament, and also reached the semi-finals of the next season's tournament, which was named the Red Stripe Bowl after the beer brand Red Stripe. The tournament was won by the Leeward Islands while Bermuda and Canada once again went winless.

See all
User Avatar
No comments yet.