CATEGORY:SPORTS(CRICKET) ----------------------------- By Trevor Thwaites Inside Grenada correspondent Friday January 12,2007 LOCAL CRICKET ANALYST, Dwayne Gill, is predicting a race between three countries for regional Cricket supremacy in 2007. He singles out defending Carib Beer Series Champions Trinidad and Tobago, and former Champions Barbados and Guyana as the teams that will possibly prevail in the season which began last weekend. “With a mixture of youth and experience, Trinidad and Tobago, must be highly favoured”, while he noted that “Barbados, although fielding a younger squad, has a good team that can excel.” He said that Guyana, the Stanford 20/20 Champions, who have played superbly over the years, could also triumph in 2007. However, with several of the top players having to leave for short tournament next week in India, he says that the event could be rather interesting. “The team that is strongest when the West Indies players leave for India, will be the one in contention. Trinidad and Tobago is maybe the team to look for”, Gill told reporters. He does not favour the Windward Islands to create a major upset, but is nevertheless looking forward to the seven nationals on the squad to help the team to produce some commendable performances. Barbados is the most celebrated team in regional cricket to date, winning the title 18 times since the inception of the Shell Shield in 1966. Jamaica and Guyana have won the event seven times each, Trinidad and Tobago five, the Leeward Islands on four occasions and the Combined Islands once - back in 1981 when the Leewards and Windwards played together as a unit. Nonetleless, Gill expects much from the young players like Heron Campbell, Ronald Ettienne and Devon George, whom he said are very talented. He is also hopeful that the 2007 season will give the likes of Darren Sammy and Devon Smith, who have been selected in the West Indies team for a short one-day series in India, an opportunity to stake a claim in the regional squad for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007. “I think Sammy could break into the World Cup squad as an all-rounder. He was outstanding for the A Team against their Sri Lankan counterparts. They need 15 players.”