Six young Antiguan cricketers have been named in a 14-man Leeward Islands squad to contest the Cricket West Indies (CWI) Under-19 tournament slated for 25 July to 11 August in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Elroy FrancisJr. leads the list of national youth players named by the Leeward Islands Cricket Board (LICB) and will act in the capacity of vice-captain to Montserrat’s Zawandi White. The other Antigua players in the squad are Uri Smith, Demari Benta, Paul Miller,Jawaski Josephand Taiem Tonge.
Bodgenarine Sharma, Anderson Amurdan, Carlon Bowen-Tuckett, Jaden Carmichael and Akadianto Willett, all of Nevis, are also included in the squad.
In a landmark decision, the International Cricket Council has approved a like-for-like concussion substitute in men's and women's international cricket and first-class cricket worldwide from August 1, the start of the first Ashes Test.
The decision was taken after a two-year trial of concussion replacements in Australia's domestic cricket competition, the Sheffield Shield. A player who has been concussed either while batting, bowling or on the field can be withdrawn from the game and be replaced subject to approval by the match referee.
The ICC stated that the decision on replacement will be made by the respective team's medical representative.
West Indies fast bowling legend Andy Roberts has blasted the captaincy of Jason Holder following a disappointing showing at the recently concluded ICC World Cup in England.
The regional team was tipped by a few pundits and fans to be capable of causing issues for the more fancied teams at the tournament but failed to live up to expectations.
The same could be said for the 27-year-old Holder who headed into the tournament in a rich vein of form but failed to deliver a telling performance. In his opinion, Roberts believes one of the biggest issues the team faced during the tournament was a lack of organisation and leadership.
West Indies fast bowling great Andy Roberts has hailed star batsman Chris Gayle as one of the game’s ‘great players’ but is convinced the time is right to walk away.
The 39-year-old Gayle had initially revealed plans to retire from international cricket following the ICC World Cup but seemed to have a change of heart just ahead of the tournament. The batsman instead targeted the regional team’s home series against India as possibly his final matches for the West Indies.
The batsman did not, however, have an outstanding World Cup, scoring a total of 242 runs in nine matches as the team limped to a ninth-place finish. Roberts, however, does not believe the player’s form merits immediate selection to the squad for the series.
Three days before the selectors meeting to pick India's senior squad for the Caribbean tour, Manish Pandey, the A team captain, made a statement with an 86-ball century that fashioned a 148-run victory. Opener Shubman Gill also staked his claim for higher honours with his second successive half-century in the West Indies to follow up an unbeaten 109 against Sri Lanka A at home last month. After the two batsmen carried India A to 295 for 6, Krunal Pandya wrecked West Indies A's chase with 5 for 25 in seven overs. The 148-run win meant India wrapped up the five one-day series with two games remaining.
After opting to bat, India A lost Anmolpreet Singh for a duck in the third over, but Gill and No.3 Shreyas Iyer forged a 109-run stand to give the innings direction. Iyer, who made a brisk 77 in the tour opener, was more sedate on Tuesday, scoring 47 off 69 balls. The stand ended when Iyer was dismissed by offspin-bowling allrounder Rahkeem Cornwall in the 27th over. Pandey and Gill then took charge of the innings, putting on a 110-run stand to take the team towards 250.
While Gill fell 23 short of a hundred, Pandey reached the landmark off 86 balls, in the last over of the innings. Seamer Romario Shepherd then pinned him lbw with an inswinging yorker off his next ball to keep the visitors to under 300.
