The action in the 50-over-a-side contest, the 201st regional one-day match, starts at 9:30, and everything points to a stirring battle for a place in the Heroes Day showdown for the title on Monday.

Last year, Guyana made it to the semi-finals and Barbados did not. One reason why Barbados did not make it was because Guyana clobbered them by 66 runs at Bourda in the preliminary round and that is a reason why today's semi-final promises so much.

In bidding for a place in the final for the first time since 1995 when they lost to the Leeward Islands, Barbados are out for a revenge.

Guyana shared the title with Trinidad and Tobago in the rain-ruined first final of 1996, lost to Trinidad and Tobago in the second and lost to the Leeward Islands last year. They are determined to get a fourth successive shot at the honours and the US$10,000 first prize and whenever vengeance and determination come face to face it is usually a battle royal.

Another reason for the promise of a thrilling encounter is the players on parade.

For Guyana, the line-up includes West Indies batsmen Carl Hooper, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Clayton Lambert, plus Keith Semple, Andrew Gonsalves and youngsters Ramnaresh Sarwan and Nicholas deGroot, pacers Reon King and Kevin Darlington, left-arm legspinner Neil McGarrell and right-arm legspinner Mahendra Nagamootoo.

For Barbados, the line-up includes five Test batsmen in Philo Wallace, Sherwin Campbell, Adrian Griffith, Roland Holder and Floyd Reifer; medium-pacers Henderson Broomes and Henderson Bryan, left-arm spinners Winston Reid and young Ryan Hinds.

With fast bowler Patterson Thompson almost certain to be excluded, the players in doubt are wicketkeeper Courtney Browne, who, because of the presence of McGarrell and Nagamootoo in the Guyana line-up could loose his place to Ricky Hoyte who is a better player to spin, and left are pacer Pedro Collins who, in an effort to strengthen the batting, could be eased aside for young batsman Ontonio Mayers who also bowls a tight medium pace.

Looking at both teams, with Hooper, Chanderpaul and Lambert to lead their batting, and despite what coach Clyde Butts has described as their disappointing fielding to date, King and McGarrell to spearhead their bowling, Guyana should start favourites against a Barbados team which lacks a batsman the quality of either Hooper or Chanderpaul, a pacer with the skill of King and, despite Reid's vast experience, a spin bowler with the talent of McGarrell.

The beauty of one-day cricket, however, is that except when a team is completely out of its depth, the pendulum swings from side to side and sometimes its final swing favours the less fancied - a tag which, unlike their glory days when they paraded such champions as Gary Sobers, Conrad Hunte, Cammie Smith and Seymour Nurse, Wes Hall and Charlie Griffith, Barbados will have to live with today.

Although their middle order has not been performing and although they do not parade a Hooper or a Chanderpaul, Barbados possess a pair of openers in Wallace and Campbell - one riding on Cloud Nine, the other with a point to prove - two batsmen who could set the pace for those to come.

To the Jamaican fans whose team fell by the wayside and left four visiting teams to preen themselves on their stage, it matters not who wins. What matters is that they get a treat to remember and some strokeplay to cherish.

A close and exciting finish would provide the treat and the elegant Hooper could produce the strokeplay on a Kaiser pitch which, usually, is good for batting.