ST JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC – Cricket West Indies will stage a training camp for emerging players at month end, geared towards developing their skills in the limited overs formats.
Fifteen players will gather at the West Indies High Performance Centre at the Coolidge Cricket Ground here for the May 27 to June 13 programme which is part of a new CWI thrust to invest heavily in player development at the youth level.
“The camp will be delivered by the CWI high-performance team with a focus on developing the players’ white-ball skills and building on the potential the players have shown coming through the CWI pathway of youth and senior regional tournaments,” said High Performance Centre programme manager, Graeme West.
“The development of players is key to the West Indies’ future success and we have to begin to build the depth of talent in the white-ball formats, especially 50 overs.”
The group selected includes four members of the ICC Under-19 World Cup-winning side from 2016 with batsman Keacy Carty and seamers Odean Smith, Chemar Holder and all-rounder Shamar Springer all chosen.
Left-arm pacer Dominic Drakes, son of former West Indies fast bowler Vasbert Drakes, has also been included.
“We have seen the emergence of a number of our talented Under-23s, like Shimron Hetmyer, Alzarri Joseph, Keemo Paul, Oshane Thomas, Sherfane Rutherford and Obed McCoy, into the West Indies white-ball squads in recent matches and all have performed creditably,” West explained.
“We have a strong group of emerging players and this initiative is a good opportunity at harnessing that talent, raising the profiles of some of our outstanding young talent, and preparing them to be future West Indies stars.”
Twelve of the 15 players, including the likes of Drakes, Smith and Springer, have been identified for next week’s Caribbean Premier League draft and West said they would be guaranteed spots in the various franchises.
“This is the first time that the CWI selection panel has provided a pool of emerging players to CPL,” said West.
“The 12 players that have been identified by the selection panel are guaranteed contracts with the six franchises and will be entered into the CPL Draft taking place later this month in London, where the franchises will make their squad selections.”
SQUAD – Joshua Bishop, *Leniko Boucher, Keacy Carty, *Roland Cato, *Dominic Drakes, Keon Harding, *Chemar Holder, *Amir Jangoo, *Ramaal Lewis, *Jeremiah Louis, *Anderson Phillips, *Jeavor Royal, *Keagan Simmons, *Odean Smith, *Shamar Springer.
