by HAYDN GILL

ATTRACTIVE INNOVATIONS are in store for this season's Sagicor General one-day competitions.

Apart from the introduction of the first ever Twenty20 tournament under the aegis of the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA), the traditional Cup and Shield competitions will feature increased prize money and new rules to bring them more in line with international tournaments.

Additionally, each of the finals will be played at Kensington Oval under lights.

Details of the competitions were unveiled by officials of the BCA and Sagicor General during a media briefing at Kensington yesterday.

"As we have promised all along, we try our best to introduce innovations every year.

"We want to move the game of knockout cricket in Barbados to the higher level and in 2008 we have some new developments," said Wendell Kellman, chairman of the tournaments' organising committee.

The Cup, which is sponsored by Sagicor General for the 33rd consecutive year, bowls off on Sunday at 10 a.m.; the Twenty20 begins a week later with matches starting at 2:30 p.m.

The Shield, which is reserved for teams in the lower divisions, is scheduled to start on June 1.

With only 24 teams registered, the deadline for entries has been extended until the middle of next week with a view to attracting the customary 40 teams.

Among the changes to the rules for the Cup that were outlined by Barbados Cricket Umpires Association president Vincent Bullen, is the inclusion of the new power-play regulation, one bouncer per over, free hits for foot-fault no-balls and penalty runs for slow over-rates.

Additionally, for the Twenty20 competition, a bowl-out will be used to settle the outcome of matches that are tied.

Roger Spencer, assistant vice-president of marketing at Sagicor General, disclosed that $115 000 in prize money would be at stake in the three competitions.

The top prize in the Cup and Twenty20 competitions is a trophy plus $15 000. In both tournaments, the runners-up will pocket $8 000, losing semi-finalists $5 000 and losing quarter-finalists $3 000.

The new top prize for the Cup represents an increase of $5 000 from last year.

The Shield winners will take home $8 000, while the runners-up will earn $5 500, the losing semi-finalists $4 000 and the losing quarter-finalists $1 500.

Another significant change to the competitions is the elimination of reserve days for quarter-final and semi-final matches.