The Jamaica Hockey Federation (JHF) will host the Cayman Hockey Club for a two-day series on October 17 and 18 at the Mona hockey field.

They will face a specially assembled 'President's XI' team, which will comprise the island's top players in a three-game series.

President of the JHF, Victor Tomlinson, is excited about the visit and is looking forward to seeing some of the island's top talents pit their skills against the Cayman Islands team, which is said to feature several expatriates from countries such as Australia, South Africa Great Britain.

Raise the profile

Tomlinson is hoping that the tour will help to raise the profile of the sport locally and added that it will offer valuable experience to some of the players who will be selected to face the Caymanians.

"We are happy about this series," Tomlinson said. "We have not had international hockey in the island for some time and we expect that more attention will now come into the sport. Those (players) who have never seen good international players play because although the team is coming from Cayman, it has several good players."

"The (Cayman) team is made up of players from Australia, South Africa, Great Britain ... so it looks like it will be a good team, so we expect good practice for the (local) teams that are picked," Tomlinson added.

The visitors will face the President's 11 select team at 9 a.m. on the 17th before a mixed game between Jamaica and Cayman at 11 a.m. Cayman Hockey Club will again face the President's XI at 6:30 p.m. on the 17th before returning a day after to close the series between the two at 11 a.m.

Future hopes

Tomlinson is hoping to make the series an annual one as the JHF looks to take advantage of the country's newly strengthened sports destination image.

"All in all, we are looking forward to two good days of hockey and we are hoping to make this an annual event on the calendar and cash in on the sports tourism and the image of Jamaica as a sporting destination," he said.