FORMER Guyana off-spinner Garvin Nedd said he’s pleased with his son Ashmead’s achievements this year, following his team’s maiden Regional Super50 title win and being named the 2019 Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) junior cricketer of the year.

Need, who will return home for the holidays after being on Windies U-19 duties in the Tri-Series versus England and Sri Lanka, has endured a whirlwind past few weeks. His West Indies Emerging Players (WIEP) upset the entire Regional Super50 roster to win their first ever major title a few weekends back.

Nedd then ended with 7 wickets, including a 5-Fer from five games played in the Tri-Series despite the Windies missing out on the final spot. At last Wednesday’s GCB Awards ceremony, Nedd bagged the highest Junior award: Cricketer-of-the-Year and, due to his absence, his father received the award on his behalf.

Nedd Snr told Chronicle Sport on Saturday that he was overly impressed with the strides Ashmead has made in recent times, adding that he was privileged to accept the award on behalf of his son.

“As a parent and coach, it’s good to see the improvements that he has been making to his cricket. We did some remodeling on his bowling action from the last World Cup, so I think its showing now because he’s bowling much better”.

The 18-year-old spinner, who has a few hundreds and a double hundreds in domestic cricket, made his batting skills a crucial part of his arsenal whether it was for the WIEP or the WI U-19 team, which he helped save on a few occasions with some rock-solid innings.

His father said with the World Cup just around the corner, batting is one of the areas he wants Ashmead to work harder on. “One of my concerns for him is the batting. I think he’s a much better batsman and if he continues to work on his stroke-play and assessing the conditions when batting, I think he is well on his way to becoming a genuine bowling all-rounder.” Nedd Snr. Stated.

The West Indies U-19 players will now enjoy the Christmas holiday season before getting back into full game-mode as the 2020 U-19 World Cup bowls off from January 17 to February 9 in South Africa.