Antiguan Jewel Andrew has enjoyed rapid success in his short cricket career.
Last October, Jewel, at 17 years and 334 days, became the youngest West Indian to play in an ODI when he debuted against Sri Lanka, breaking Xavier Marshall’s record.
However, the lad, from an Island that produced three of the greatest players to don the maroon cap (Sir Vivian Richards, Sir Andy Roberts, and Sir Curtly Ambrose), did not bat in what is his only ODI to date.

While Jewel and his brother Hillroy Andrew were born in Antigua, their mother, Veronique Hill, was born in Guyana’s largest County, Essequibo.
Jewel, who turned 18 on December 7, last year, scored 122 and 65 in his previous match against CCC after making 62 against Jamaica and 57 versus the West Indies Academy.
Jewel could add a couple of tons with four possible innings remaining before this year’s West Indies Four-Day Championships is concluded.

“My season is going great. It’s something that I have been thinking about… so it’s just for me to live it now.
Making my maiden First-Class century feels like a dream that I don’t want to wake up from. My recent performances stem from the support I’ve been getting from teammates and family.
I learned that at the first-class level you can’t cheat the game and have an off day because it will show in the match”, posited Jewel, a gifted wicket-keeper/ batter.

“In youth cricket I scored freely with more bad balls to put away…
Meanwhile, playing in first-class cricket I have more good bowlers to face so the percentage of bad balls is lower so I have to concentrate for longer periods” continued Jewel who recently received the 2024 Junior Sportsman award which was presented by Antigua’s Minister of Sports and Education the honorable Darryl Matthews.
On the day he collected his award, Jewel blasted 113 from 44 balls with seven fours and 12 sixes for Piggott’s Crushers against Rising Sun in a domestic game in Antigua. His elder brother Hillroy Anderw played on the opposing team.

The Leewards Islands face Guyana in the penultimate round of the first-class Championships in St Kitts on Wednesday and Jewel aims to register centuries in consecutive games.
The last time these two teams met in a First-Class match, the Leewards, on the back of twin tons from Mickel Louis, defeated Guyana by 273 runs last year in St Kitts.
The classy Jewel is keen to repeat Louis’ performance and become the 13th batter to accomplish that feat since Roy Fredericks did it for the first time in 1967 against Barbados at Bourda.
This season, the Trini pair of Josh DaSilva and Jason Mohammed achieved that feat.

“Getting a century against the Country where my mom was born would be a great milestone for me…I think it would mean more to her”, Jewel said with a chuckle.
Jewel said if this happens, he will dedicate his century to former West Indies Test batter and the Region’s most successful Captain Leon Johnson, whom he described as a legend.
Since his debut in February last year against Guyana in St Kitts, the teen has played 13 first-class matches for the Leewards and scored 786 runs at an Average of 37.42 with one century and six fifties.

Jewel made his list A debut in 2023 for Leewards in the Super50 before his first-class debut came in February last year against Guyana in St Kitts. He ended that tournament with 356 runs with three half- centuries.
Last year, 17-year-old Jewel made the West Indies team in the ICC U-19 World Cup and scored 130 from 96 balls in the opening round against South Africa. The gifted wicket-keeper batter finished the World Cup with a hundred and a fifty in four innings. He then made his ODI debut in October of the same year.

Last December Jewel, Akeem Aguste, Teddy Bishop, Kirk McKenzie, Jordan Johnson, Kevin Wickham and Guyana’s Matthew Nandu attended a batting camp at the Chennai Super Kings Academy.

Jewel was born on December 7, 2006, in a small Village called Barnes Hill. He and his brother grew up in a single-parent home.
As a four-year-old, Jewel became interested in cricket when his elder brother attended a ‘kiddies camp’ for students six years and over. Jewel was eventually allowed to join the session.
He attended the New Winthropes Primary and later the Antigua Grammar School, the old school of Sir Vivian Richards. Jewel wrote six CXC Subjects last year.

At the Antigua Grammar School, he was coached by former West Indies batter Sylvester Joseph.
He joined the Piggott’s Club, where former West Indies pacer Winston Benjamin is the Coach.

Jewel, who played seven CPL matches for the Antigua and Barbuda Falcons, is the best teenage batter in the Caribbean and seems destined to be the next great cricketer from the 108-square-mile Island of Antigua.