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For the next week and a half the Digicel sponsored Caribbean Football Championships in Jamaica takes center stage. The 8-team tournament kicked off in Kingston’s National Stadium last night with just about 4,000 spectators in attendance. The opening game saw Grenada shocking Trinidad, the Caribbean’s last hope for a World Cup place in South Africa, with a goal two minutes into injury time from New York resident Ricky Charles to defeat the Soca Warriors 2-1. Charles, who played professionally in Trinidad this season, set up his team’s first goal in the 37th minute. Trinidad equalised in the 69th minute through former MLS player Cornell Glen. Trinidad, among the pre-tournament favorites to take the title might be a bad bet after all as several of their players have been involved in 3 times a week matches for their clubs in the past two weeks, so most of their players might just be on tired legs as the Trinidad Pro Regular League Season just ended.
Their match tomorrow against Barbados is now a must win if they hope to advance to the semifinals. Barbados find themselves in a must win situation too after going down 2-1 to Jamaica in a creditable performance. They took the lead on the stroke of halftime from a corner kick and held that lead until 15minutes from the end when Rudolf Austin, The former Portmore player who just completed his first season in Norway found the equaliser. Luton Shelton converted a penalty 8 minutes later to give the Reggae Boyz the deserved victory based on their dominant ball possession. They will play Grenada in the feature of a double header tomorrow night at Jarrett Park in Montego Bay.
Cuba, Haiti, Antigua and Guadeloupe bow into action tonight at Jarrett Park which kicks off 5 straight days of double headers in Western Jamaica. Saturday and Sunday the action moves to nearby Falmouth in Trelawny. Home of the opening ceremonies for 2007 World Cup Cricket, for afternoon doubleheaders before returning to Montego Bay Monday night. The four semifinalist will qualify for the Gold Cup Tournament. CONCACAF’s championships held in the us every two years.
Before arriving in Jamaica, serveral Trinidadians were finishing up the Trinidad Pro League which saw San Juan Jabloteh adding the Big Six Trophy to their league triumph after holding their only challengers W Connection to a draw on Saturday. The season continues in Trinidad with the end of season Toyota Classic Knock Out, competed for by the 10 pro teams and the top 6 teams in the semiprofessional Super League and the FA cup. In fact tomorrow night’s Toyota Classic Quarter Finals will see Jabloteh playing its 10 match in an insane 17 day span.
The Jamaica Premier League naturally takes a two and a half week break to acccommodate the Caribbean Championships. Of note, Paul Tegat Davis, familiar to many fans in the Atlanta area, returned to Coach Village Utd, of Falmouth for the first time last Sunday since pre season wage talks broke down. Of course Tegat was instrumental in pulling Villiage from the very bottom of the league into a mid table finish last season but his first game back was a 2-1 loss to leaders and Caribbean Champions Harbour View. Tivoli Gardens remained in second after defeating Meadheaven with Boys Town and St. Georges of Portland joint third after they had 1-0 wins over Arnett Gardens and Waterhouse, respectively.
In Cricket, the West Indies play their only practice match tomorrow through Sunday in preparation for their first test against New Zealand that begins next Thursday. This begins a very busy period for West Indies Cricketers. The 2 test, 2 20/20 matches and 5 One Day Internationals ends mid January. They then host England for two months beginning in February before playing in England in early summer in a reciprocal Test and One day Series.
In addition, and this may be good news for the future of West Indies Cricket, The regional Carib Beer Championships between champions Jamaica, Trindad, Barbados, Guyana, Leeward Islands, Windward Islands and a combined colleges and University team will now feature a total home and away fixutre list. So each team will for the first time play 12 matches for the season which should allow West Indies players to appear in at least one-third of the matches if not a half thus giving promising regional players a good test against the established players on a more frequent basis. This kicks off on January 9th. The only draw back is that with the West Indies hosting two touring teams early next year. The Regional Tournment is likely to be draged out into early August.
Finally the calendar say it’s December which means Winter in most of North America. It was 20 years ago this year that Jamaica found its name. surprislgly to most of the world, among the entrants to the 1988 Winter Olympics with the now famous Bobsled Team. Well Jamaica seem to be delving even further into winter sports with a specific aim at the 2010 Winter Olympics and now evern has a Jamaica Ski Federation. Keep an ear out for the name Errol Kerr. He is a 22 year old Californina whose late father was Jamaican. He has petitioned Jamaica to represent them in the Winter Olympics and has gotten the go ahead. He is a skier of multiple disciplines, including the Slalom, Giant Slalom, Down Hill and Skier Cross where he is ranked 2nd in the US. He figured to be a good shot to make the US team but he’s choosing to represent Jamaica.
WASHINGTON, USA (Reuters): President-elect Barack Obama should start soon to loosen five decades of trade curbs on Cuba and begin a comprehensive review of policy toward the communist-run island, business groups said on Thursday. Washington should also consider exempting agricultural machinery. 
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP): Celebrities from Hollywood and Italy helped cut the ribbon Wednesday on a new hospital for handicapped children in Haiti that has the highest infant mortality in the Western hemisphere. John Edwards, former White House hopeful, joined other stars for the ceremonial opening. 
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (BGIS): Barbados on Thursday resolutely reaffirmed its decision to maintain the death penalty as part of its sentencing penalties in the country’s legal system. The reconfirmation came from Minister of Social Care, Urban and Rural Development, Christopher Sinckler. 
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados: Barbados’ Prime Minister David Thompson said that there was an important role for United States president-elect Barack Obama to play in strengthening the Caribbean integration movement. That, he said, was the greatest contribution that Obama could make to the region at this time. 
GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands: The Cayman Islands government announced on Thursday that it will take an active role in the British government’s independent review of UK Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories, which will analyse the long-term opportunities and challenges facing each. 
HAVANA, Cuba (ACN): Cuba is estimated to close this year with a 4 percent economic growth in spite of the US economic blockade and the destruction caused by three hurricanes that hit the island in the past few months, said a Deputy Minister of the Cuban Council of State on Wednesday. 
GEORGETOWN, Guyana: Despite the current food, fuel and financial crises hitting the world, with the likelyhood of affecting developing countries like Guyana , the government says public servants will not be receiving any year- end salary increases and retroactive payments next month. 
GEORGETOWN, Guyana (GINA): President Bharrat Jagdeo will Friday be launching the government of Guyana’s position on Avoided Deforestation at the Guyana International Conference Centre, Liliendaal where it is expected that a large number of stakeholders will also be participating. 
KINGSTON, Jamaica: In light of the rapid increase in sex crimes in Jamaica, both the Bruce Golding-led government as well as the opposition are anxious to push through the Sexual Offences Act before the end of the year. Prime Minister Golding on Tuesday tabled the Bill and said he wanted to protect women and children. 
KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS): Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Senator Dorothy Lightbourne, has said that the preservation and protection of the human rights of Jamaicans, remains a priority of the government. Lightbourne pledged the government’s commitment to continue to work with human rights. 
MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica (JIS): Caribbean Local Government Ministers have approved the final draft of the Regional Policy and Co-operation Framework on Local Governance, which will serve as a guide towards enhancing Local Government in the region. The sanctioning of the policy came after two days of meetings. 
HAVANA, Cuba (ACN): Néstor Nazario, from Puerto Rico’s National Hostosiano Pro-Independence Movement, made the official delivery on Wednesday of humanitarian aid collected in that Caribbean territory for the victims of recent hurricanes in Cuba. He said that the cargo was made up of food and clothing. 
CHARLESTOWN, Nevis: Youth initiatives organized by the Nevis HIV/AIDS Coordinating Unit, will be the beneficiaries of an undisclosed monetary contribution from the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) Washington DC Chapter. The cheque was presented to Acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health. 
CHARLESTOWN, Nevis: Premier of Nevis and Minister of Finance, Joseph Parry, met with industry partners prior to debating the budget, which will take place on December 9, 2008. Anticipating probable challenges Parry met with hoteliers on Tuesday,and financial institutions on Thursday. 
MONTERREY, Mexico (AFP): Mexico’s Cemex, the world’s third largest cement producer, has sought World Bank arbitration over Caracas’s nationalization of its Venezuelan operations, a company spokesman said Thursday. The move to nationalize Cemex came after talks on a buyout failed. 
