The Barbados U19 men’s cricket team has embarked on a significant journey to compete in the highly anticipated Cricket West Indies Rising Stars Men’s Under-19 Championship in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

The tournament, which was originally scheduled to begin 2 July, with separate three-day and 50-over competitions, was postponed after the passing of Hurricane Beryl. After careful review and restructuring the format will be changed to a two-day tournament along with the 50-over games and will begin from 11 July and run until 30 July.

The journey begins with a palpable sense of excitement and anticipation among players, coaches, and supporters alike. For many of these young cricketers, this tournament represents a crucial opportunity to showcase their skills and make a mark in the competitive cricketing world.

Their captain, Nathan Sealy, a promising all-rounder, expressed that his team has high expectations and the players, coaches and management staff are up to any challenge.

Captain Sealy also said his team is looking forward to bouncing back from a disappointing result in the 2023 tournament and is very confident that Barbados has what is required to wrest the title in both formats from holders, Jamaica.

Coach Sherwin Campbell also noted the team’s overall balance between youth and experience, as he said “I’m expecting the team to do fairly well, we have a well balanced team between boys that played before and the newer ones coming in the side.” Campbell also said the team will be pushing to win at least one of the competitions if not both.

The team will include the experience of Sealy, stylish batter Joshua Dorne, and the strongly built fast bowler Raneico Smith, who all represented the West Indies earlier this year at the ICC Under-19 Men’s Cricket World Cup  in South Africa.

Dorne, along with leg spinner Zishan Motara, would have made their first-class debuts earlier this year, Dorne with the West Indies Academy Team, and Motara with the Combined Campuses and Colleges in the 2023–24 West Indies Championship, the 56th edition of the Regional Four Day Competition.

Steven Leslie, Manager, Marketing and Communications for the Barbados Cricket Association, also expressed how pleased they are about the competition being held even after the passing of Hurricane Beryl. Leslie said: “The young men have been kept busy in terms of remaining focused for the competition. The Barbados team is very well prepared and we believe that they can do the country proud.”

In the two-day format Barbados will take on Trinidad & Tobago, the Leeward Islands, and Guyana before the placement game. The other two teams in the competition will be Windward Islands and Jamaica. Teams will all play each other in a round robin format for the 50-over competition.

Barbados U19 Team:

Nathan Sealy (Captain), Joshua Dorne (Vice Captain), Zion Brathwaite, Preston Clarke, Achillies Browne, Micah Greenidge, Kyle Jordan, Kyron King, Akeem McCollin, Joshua Morris, Zishan Motara, Jatario Prescod, Raneico Smith, Saurav Worell.

Management:

Sherwin Campbell (Head Coach), Dexter Toppin (Assistant Coach), Jabbar Niles (Manager), Dominic Angoy (Physiotherapist)

(ZM)