CRICKET West Indies (CWI) Under-19 coach Graeme West believes that Guyana’s cricket model will allow greater youth development which will ultimately prepare them for the professional arena.
West made the statement yesterday during an exclusive interview with Chronicle Sport at the conclusion of the three-day assessment camp with the Guyanese players who were selected to the Windies Under-19 training camp.
“Certainly from the senior team dominating first-class cricket, the setup is very good; the opportunities for the young players to come into the system are really crucial … bringing them through, testing them, challenging them and preparing them for the professional arena; so the model is very good. It has proved to be successful and it’s definitely producing more and more talented young players,” West stated..
Berbicians, Kevlon Anderson and Kelvin Umroa, along with Demerara Cricket Club’s, Ashmead Nedd and Sachin Singh, were the players involved in the three-day programme.
West said he was very much impressed with the four youngsters over the last three days.
“They all impressed me in the regional tournament in different ways, but watching them work here for the last three days, they definitely understand what they need to do to improve, and that’s crucial but we are looking at long-term.
The World Cup is in South Africa so the conditions there will be very much different from most of the Caribbean; so the ability to play the bouncing delivery is going to be important. Back foot skills for the batsmen will be important also so there is a whole lot of stuff we need to look at,” West pointed out.
West has been head coach for the last two ICC Under-19 World Cups, and was the man at the helm when the Windies won the title in Bangladesh two years ago. He further noted that with the Regional Under-19 tournament scheduled to play in July-August 2019 in Guyana, there could be changes to the 20-man squad once there are individual performances.
First contested in 1988 as the Youth World Cup, it was not staged again until 1998. Since then, the World Cup has been held as a biennial event, organised by the ICC.
India, the current champions, have won the World Cup four times which is the highest amongst all teams, while Australia have won three times, Pakistan twice and England, South Africa and the West Indies once each.
