FOUR teams will participate in the Cricket Fiji Elite Player League competition this Saturday.
The competition will be played in the 50-over-per-day format and will assist national selectors in identifying players who are capable of representing Fiji on the international stage next year.
A statement from Cricket Fiji said the league would be used to select a national team to prepare for the East Asia Pacific (EAP) Regional competition.
The regional event will be held in Auckland, New Zealand in February and will be used as a build-up by the national side for the World League Division 7 Competition.
Cricket Fiji high performance manager Joe Rika said the teams made up of current and former national reps and some younger players from the development program who had shown promise and were capable of becoming future national reps.
He said he could not wait for the Courts Fiji sponsored league to start as Cricket Fiji was expecting an exciting and competitive tournament that would lift the standard of the sport in the country.
"Most of the players in the teams haven't played cricket for over five months now and are keen to get on the park," Rika said.
"With all our major international competitions played in the 50 over format, it is essential that our players take full advantage of this opportunity and work hard if they want to earn a spot in the national team," he said.
Some of the players in the four teams are members of the national under 17 side that finished second in the EAP U17 competition that was played in Lautoka last month.
"Hopefully the senior boys saw how the youngsters showed a lot of heart in their final game against Vanuatu to come out winners in that match and hopefully that inspires them all to work hard," Rika said. The first round of games of the six-week competition will be played on Saturday at Albert Park's ground one and two.