The Regional Four Day Competition, formerly known as the Shell Shield, Red Stripe, Busta and Carib Beer Cup, is the West Indies's first-class cricket competition that's run by Cricket West Indies. In the 2013–2014 season the winner of the tournament was awarded the WICB President's Trophy while the winners of the knockout competition were awarded the George Headley/Everton Weekes trophy. In a few previous seasons the winners of the tournament were awarded the Headley/Weekes trophy. On from the 2016–17 season, the Competition was sponsored by Digicel and was known as the Digicel Four Day Championship. Since 2019–20, the competition has been renamed as the West Indies Championship.
The competition is contested between seven Caribbean teams and, on occasion, touring sides from other countries. Of these sides four of them, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, come from solitary nations. While two other teams, the Leeward Islands and the Windward Islands, previously competed as the Combined Islands, now each being from a myriad of nations. Since the 2007–08 season a Combined Campuses and Colleges cricket team (CCC cricket team) were included in the competition. However, in July 2014 the WICB announced that the CCC cricket team was to be excluded from the upcoming 2014-15 Regional Four Day competition. This came as a series of changes adopted based on the recommendations made in a March 2014 report presented by Richard Pybus, WICB's then director of cricket.
The current structure of the tournament, since the 2014–15 season is a double round-robin league system with the team earning the most points being declared the winner. Prior to this the tournament didn't comprise a knock out stage so teams could potentially both win the tournament. The competition later consisted of a single round-robin league followed by semi-finals and a final. The current champions are Guyana. Barbados have won the most titles with twenty-two outright (and one shared), while Jamaica and Guyana have won the most consecutive titles (five).
Competing teams
The following teams have competed in every tournament since the 2007–08 season: Barbados (now going by the franchise name Barbados Pride) Guyana (now going by the franchise name Guyana Harpy Eagles) Jamaica (now going by the franchise name Jamaica Scorpions) Leeward Islands (now going by the franchise name Leeward Islands Hurricanes) Trinidad and Tobago (now going by the franchise name Trinidad and Tobago Red Force) Windward Islands (now going by the franchise name Windward Islands Volcanoes)
The following teams have also made appearances in the competition: Combined Islands – 1965–66 to 1980–81 England Lions – 2000–01 (as England A), 2010–11 West Indies B – 2000–01, 2001–02, 2002–03, 2003–04 Bangladesh A – 2001–02 India A – 2002–03 Kenya – 2003–04 Combined Campuses and Colleges - 2007–08 to 2013-14
Origins
First-class cricket has been played in the West Indies since 1865, when Barbados beat Demerara, later known as British Guiana and now Guyana, at the Garrison Savannah in Bridgetown. During 1891 three teams, namely Barbados, British Guiana and Trinidad and Tobago, took part in the inaugural Inter-Colonial Tournament held at the Barbados' Bay Pasture, with Barbados eventually defeating British Guiana in the final by an innings and 55 runs. All three teams won the tournament on more than five occasions. When Jamaica attained first-class status, they only played 22 games in their first 30 years as a cricketing side, usually playing touring teams from England. After the West Indies were awarded Test status in 1928, the number of games played by Jamaica increased.
During World War II, there was no official Inter-Colonial tournament, but matches were still played between the three teams who had competed for it, and this continued after the war, but now also including Jamaica. In 1956, British Guiana hosted a four-team knock-out tournament, which was repeated five years later but now with the Combined Islands joining in. The final unofficial tournament (which does not appear on records in Wisden Cricketers' Almanack or Cricinfo) was held in 1964, with Barbados, British Guiana, Jamaica and Trinidad competing in a league, which British Guiana won.