The Independent Voice of West Indies Cricket

BUSY PERIOD OF YOUTH CRICKET BEGINS

Tue, Jul 11, '17

 

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ST. JOHN’S, Antigua – Cricket West Indies announced today its schedule of age group development tournaments for the Caribbean summer, starting with the Regional Under-17 Tournament to be contested in Trinidad.

The Under-17 tournament which opened today will be followed a week later by the Regional Under-15 Tournament in Barbados and the busy period for the youth players in the Caribbean comes to a conclusion with the Regional Under-19 Tournament, starting on July 24 in St. Kitts.

Rawl Lewis, the CWI project officer for youth tournaments, said: “The aim of our youth tournaments is to identify players with talent and give them an opportunity to further develop their skills through the intensity of competition against their peers from around the region.

“We’ve done a lot of planning and preparation for this period which will be quite busy, but we are looking forward to see how our young players are developing and hope that they grab this opportunity with open arms.

“There are also incentives for the best of our young players to play for an age group West Indies team, as the Under-15s are scheduled to go to England again next month and a strong performance could see a few players squeeze into the Under-19 side for the ICC Youth World Cup early next year in New Zealand.”

There is something extra special about each of the regional youth tournaments taking place this year.

The Under-17s will get to christen the recently inaugurated Brian Lara Cricket Academy located in the south Trinidad district of Tarouba. It will be the first time any kind of regional matches will be played there, and will inform local and CWI officials about the quality of the venue, as it seeks to become fully integrated into the regional circuit.

For the Regional Under-15 Tournament, this will be the first time that it will be played in Barbados and teams can look forward to playing matches at a number of picturesque, rural venues, especially the KMV Oval at Lakes in the north-eastern parish of St. Andrew.

At the same time, the Regional Under-19 Tournament will return to a full slate of matches, following a few years of truncated competition. The region’s leading youth players will get a chance to mix it up in five rounds of three-day matches, as well as seven rounds of 50 overs-a-side matches that also include a composite side from ICC Americas.