St John’s, ANTIGUA – West Indies “Rising Stars” Under 19 Championship Bowls off in St Vincent with particular focus on the January 2020 World Cup in South Africa squad preparation and selection. The opening round matches all at 9:30 am are; Windward Island vs Guyana, Leeward Islands vs Jamaica and Barbados vs Trinidad and Tobago. The Championship culminates on the August 7th with the final (round), followed by an additional three “Best vs The Best” matches to identify the leading Under 19 talent.

Jimmy Adams, Director of Cricket: The value of our Under 19 tournament cannot be overstated given its position within the development pathway. Most, if not all, of our international players going back 20-30 years were identified in this tournament and it continues to be a critical phase of our Talent ID program.

Graeme West, High Performance Director: TheUnder 19 is senior tournament for youth cricket in the region and its a very important tournament with regardless to assessing the talent in our pathway. This year we have no team from ICC so it’s a straight five team format similar to recent Under 17 competition in Trinidad and Tobago. Some of these guys it could be their last year in youth cricket before they make the step up to senior and professional cricket, while for others who were involved in Under 17, its a great opportunity to test themselves against older players. From my perspective we have had 18 players in set up for the last year that we have invested in through camps, so I’m looking forward to seeing their progress along with new players that can emerge from the pack for Under 19 World Cup consideration. We are looking to pick 24 players at the end of tournament which will stay on for three additional games, which we will look to narrow down for activities later in the year.

Ricky Skerritt, CWI President: Re-branding the Under 19 to ‘Rising Stars’ is just one indication of how serious we are about focusing on our young cricketers. Putting cricket first includes investing now in our youth so we can reap better results in the future.

-ENDS

BARBADOS