After 27 years as a four-team competition, the Belco Cup will expand to ten teams for this year, it was confirmed yesterday.

The Bermuda Cricket Board and Belco, sponsors of the tournament since 2003, revealed the changes which was first reported by The Royal Gazette last week.

Next month’s tournament will involve more teams and with matches to be held over three weekends, starting with play-off matches on May 4 and finishing with semi-finals and final on the weekend of May 17.

Southampton Rangers, the holders, and St David’s, last year’s finalists and top two teams in the league standings in 2013, have received a bye into the semi-finals.

And while the changes were welcomed by most clubs, including 2012 champions Bailey’s Bay who were set to miss out this year after failing to finish in the top four, Dion Stovell, captain of Rangers, expressed a different view.

“I’m not too much for the format but I’d like to thank Belco for, over the years, providing this tournament,” said Stovell. “I think based on last year’s performances from other teams, the top four teams should have stayed and played semi-finals because this gives teams like Bailey’s Bay the opportunity to try to win it again. They have a lifeline.” Denton Williams, Belco’s chief operating Officer, was the brainchild of the format change, indicating he wanted to involve more of the community in the tournament.

“I’m very pleased with the new format that we are implementing for the 2014 season,” Williams said. “This year’s Belco Cup should prove to be the best ever as we revert to coloured clothing and white cricket balls alongside having a record ten teams vying for this prestigious trophy.”

Play-off matches next weekend will see Willow Cuts playing Somerset Bridge at Somerset, Cleveland meeting Devonshire Recreation Club at Wellington Oval, Western Stars taking on St George’s at St John’s Field and Somerset hosting Bailey’s Bay, though doubts exist whether Wellington and St John’s will be ready for cricket.

The competition was played as the Premier Cup in the first two years in 1987 and ‘88 before becoming the Camel Cup. It wasn’t until 2003 when Belco became the sponsors, that Rangers won the competition for the first time, going on to dominate the tournament with eight wins in the last eleven finals.

“As captain of Southampton Rangers, we always look to win the competition and be competitive, so we will have to train hard, play hard and look to win it,” Stovell said at yesterday’s press conference at the Belco headquarters.

The league is planned to start on May 11, but Stovell accepts that teams who are playing in the earlier rounds of the Belco Cup will have an advantage when Rangers and St David’s enter at the semi-final stage.

Del Hollis, the St David’s spinner, welcomed the additional teams, saying more sides may just change his team’s fortunes in the competition. They have never won as the Belco Cup. They have lost five Belco Cup finals.

“With them adding more teams maybe our luck will change,” Hollis said.

Stephen Outerbridge, captain of Bailey’s Bay, said that he felt the tournament had been well-suited to four teams, but was happy that Bay had been thrown a “lifeline”.

“Like Dion said, the Belco Cup is a prestigious trophy and was designed for the top four, but Belco want to expand it and I’m thankful it gives Bay a lifeline,” Outerbridge said. “It was not one of my goals for the season but I guess we will have to go back and reorganise.”

Somerset Bridge will mark their first appearance in the tournament against Willow Cuts. Bermuda’s National Youth Academy will be the recipients of all gate receipts from the final on May 18 at Lord’s.