ST JOHN’S, Antigua – The Selection Panel of the West Indies Cricket Board has named the West Indies Under-19 squad for tours of South Africa and Zimbabwe.
The tours are being undertaken as part of the Windies Under-19s’ build-up to the ICC Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand from January 12 to February 4 next year.
Windies Under-19s are the defending champions, having won their first title in February, 2016 in Bangladesh under the leadership of Shimron Hetmyer.
The captain is Emmanuel Stewart with Kirstan Kallicharran as vice captain. They were members of the World Cup-winning squad from last year.
SQUADS
Emmanuel Stewart (captain)
Kirstan Kalilcharan (vice captain)
Te-Shawn Alleyne
Alick Athanaze
Joshua Bishop
Cephas Cooper
Mykille Louis
Darron Nedd
Matthew Patrick
Joshua Persaud
Javor Royal
Kegan Simmons
Javier Spencer
Bhaskar Yadram
Nyeem Young
Team Management Unit
Graeme West (Head Coach)
Dwain Gill (Team Manager)
Corey Collymore (Assistant Coach)
Khevyn Williams (Physiotherapist)
Zephyrinus Nicholas (Fitness Coach)
Dinesh Mahabir (Video Data Analyst)
Quotes from Head Coach, Graeme West
On the squad: The squad is well balanced with a number of “multi-dimensional” players, which will provide depth in all departments. This team is still very young in comparison with the previous squad, but its already a very united group that works well together and has a great desire to learn and improve.
On the overview of the tour: First and foremost, we are going to give 15 talented, young players the opportunity to represent the West Indies, experience touring overseas and play “Youth” International Cricket. We learnt a great deal about a number of the players in the WICB Regional Super50 Tournament. This will be another opportunity to find out which players have the skill-sets to perform consistently at this level and establish who is going to stand up when put under pressure by quality opponents.
On expectations going into the tour: We want to win both series and establish the patterns of play and combinations that will be taken into the World Cup. We will want to see growth and improvement in every game we play and we will want contributions from all members of the squad, so it will be important that the team acclimatizes quickly and gets off to a good start.
SCHEDULE OF MATCHES
West Indies Under-19s to South Africa
July
Tue 4: Tour Match vs South Africa Under-19 XI – Varsity Oval, Durban
Thu 6: Tour Match vs Kwa-Zulu Natal Academy – Varsity Oval
Sun 9: 1st Youth ODI – Chatsworth Oval, Durban
Wed 12: 2nd Youth ODI – Pietermaritzburg Oval, Pietermaritzburg
Fri 14: 3rd Youth ODI – Pietermaritzburg Oval
Sun 16: 4th Youth ODI – Pietermaritzburg Oval
Wed 19: 5th Youth ODI – Chatsworth Oval
West Indies Under-19s to Zimbabwe
July
Sun 23: 1st Youth ODI – Venue to be decided
Wed 26: 2nd Youth ODI – Venue to be decided
Sat 29: 3rd Youth ODI – Venue to be decided