West Indies U-19 in Red Stripe Bowl

THE West Indies Under-19 cricket team will play in the Red Stripe Bowl regional limited overs cricket series in October. This was revealed by a source close to the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) yesterday, who said: “The WICB will ask the Windwards to join forces and this will leave one place available in group B, which will be taken by the West Indies Under-19 cricket team.” The Windward Islands were split into two teams for the last tournament, with the Northern Wind-wards and Southern Windwards competing in different zones during the preliminary rounds. The Leewards also made a split with Antigua and Barbuda playing as a separate entity and the rest of the Leewards making up the other team. The source continued: “The thinking at the Board level is that the Windwards splitting affected the standard of the competition. “The perennial whipping boys of regional cricket is not a strong territory and by splitting into two, the standard of the teams was even lower. This led to a water-down of the tournament.

“The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has decided that it is better to introduce the Under-19 team to the top flight of regional cricket with the youngsters gaining valuable experience ahead of the MTN Under-19 World Cup in 2004.” The WICB will choose the West Indies Under-19 team after the regional Under-19 cricket series next month in Guyana. “Last year the University of the West Indies cricket team were allowed to play and this further diluted the standard of the series and the WICB is seriously looking at the possibility of not inviting the students to take part this time around.” The Canadians who played in the International Cricket Conference (ICC) World Cup tournament in South Africa last year, will again be making an appearance in the tournament.