BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – The uncapped 16-year-old batting standout Kraigg Braithwaite was named yesterday in the Barbados 13-man squad to face Combined Campuses and Colleges in the penultimate round of the WICB Regional Four-day tournament this weekend.

Braithwaite has been a young marvel here with more than 28 centuries in junior cricket and he is among five players in the squad – to be captained by Corey Collymore – who did not play in the 11th round loss to the Leeward Islands last month.

The 2008 West Indies Youth (Under-19) captain Shamarh Brooks, who has not played a game so far this season, Shane Ramsay, Barrington Yearwood, and West Indies Test batsman Ryan Hinds are the players who did not feature in the innings loss to the Leewards.

The right-handed Braithwaite is a highly regarded opening batsman, who won the Most Valuable Player award at the CLICO International Under-15 Championship which he helped West Indies win last year.

He is also a two-time MVP of the West Indies U15 championship.

Barbados, who were challenging Jamaica for the WICB Regional tournament lead in mid-season, declined badly in recent weeks and are on a winless four-game streak including losses in their last three matches.

Barbados are currently joint fourth – with Trinidad and Tobago on 54 points – in the standings, while Jamaica are already guaranteed championship honours with an unbeatable 94 points.

The match starts tomorrow at the 3Ws Oval at the UWI’s Cave Hill Campus.
SQUAD: Corey Collymore (captain), Tino Best, Rashid Boucher, Kraigg Brathwaite, Patrick Browne, Kirk Edwards, Ryan Hinds, Shane Ramsay, Dwayne Smith, Kevin Stoute, Barrington Yearwood, Shamarh Brooks, Nikolai Charles.