Essequibo teenage sensation, Lisa Charles, says she is aiming for a spot on the West Indies Women’s side for the inaugural Under-19 tournament in Bangladesh next year.
Charles, who has already tasted regional cricket at the national youth level and captained the Select Under-19 side in the local Senior Female Inter-County 50-over tournament, sat down with this publication to list the pathway to making her dream a reality.
“It wouldn’t be easy to make the West Indies side for the U19 World Cup but it is something I aspire to achieve and it motivates me to work even harder on my game,” the all-rounder said.
Being a young lady of indigenous heritage, Charles takes a lot of pride in being able to represent her people and also professed her passion for making Essequibo proud.
“I look up to other females cricketers but I am especially proud of my indigenous background and I want to make them, as well as Essequibo proud,” she declared/
The Grade 11 Anna Regina Multilateral Secondary School student, recalls that, in terms of her preparation, the experience she gained from years of being involved with cricket, as well as the recent Inter-County tournament, is invaluable.
“I gained a lot of experience by playing with different cricketers and, as I grow, my maturity and understanding of the game has developed.”
Since the tournament concluded, Charles, who is preparing to sit the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) said that she was back in the Cinderella County making the sacrifice of training from 15.30 hours until 17.00 hours with Essequibo coach, Forbes Daniels but with the Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, she is forced to train on her own.
“Before this pandemic started, I usually trained with coach Forbes in the afternoons after school on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays…I also normally have lessons during those days but only on Mondays and Saturdays I take them…,” she related.
It is during these sessions that the diminutive right-hander would work on her batting, particularly her forward defense and strike rotation.
However, since the lockdown due to the pandemic, Charles has restructured her training to include a two-mile run, exercises, spot bowling and the localized ‘ball and sock’.
“With the coronavirus lockdown, I normally run like two miles every day, I do around 600-700 skips, a bit of abdominal work to keep fit and I do some spot bowling as well as some batting practice,” Charles explained.
“Playing for the West Indies is a dream,” she opined.
“I haven’t really set any goals as yet, but I am certain that I want to perform consistently and do my best to help the team win if I get the chance to score hundreds I will and if called upon to take wickets then I’ll be up to the challenge,” she added.
Chief Executive Officer of Cricket West Indies, Johnny Grave had told this publication that it is very important that the Regional under-19 tournament is played since it serves as preparation for the under-19 World Cup. The Regional competition was scheduled to commence this month but has since been postponed indefinitely with CWI taking precautionary measures to fight the pandemic.
