CMC – WHILE the West Indies did not live up to expectations at the ICC World Cup, head coach Floyd Reifer strongly believes the future of the team is in good hands.

Reifer, a former West Indies captain, said an abundance of talent within the region meant the regional side would be a force to reckon with in the years to come.

He pointed to players such Shai Hope, Nicholas Pooran, Shimron Hetmyer, Oshane Thomas and Sheldon Cottrell, as cricketers with much potential.

“The future of our cricket is good. You know, we have a lot of young guys here. Hope, Pooran, Hetmyer, Oshane Thomas. We have young John Campbell, he was injured from early, so our future is good. I’m confident in these youngsters that going forward we can bring West Indies cricket back to where it belongs at the top.

“Yes, it is unfortunate we didn’t get to the final four in this competition, but going forward I’m happy from what I have seen. Sheldon Cottrell had a very good World Cup, so we have a lot of young guys that we can mould and build a strong unit going forward,” Reifer said.
The head coach said what was particularly important now was for those players to be moulded into leaders.

“We have a group of guys that for us is to create leaders and that is something we have got to focus on in the Caribbean, as well as in our franchise and first-class cricket to create more leaders amongst ourselves,” Reifer pointed out.

“We have a good young group of players. Like I said, Hetmyer, Hope, Sheldon Cottrell, Pooran. Those guys are young players and we have young guys coming up as well, Keemo Paul.”

So we have good talent in the Caribbean in the system. We have to make sure that we nurture that talent very well. When we get back to the Caribbean it’s important that we, you know, put guys in the environment and put them in a tough situation where they have to train and train hard and prepare and prepare well.