Five TT cricketers chosen for African tour

The tour takes place in July and is being used as preparation for the 2018 ICC Under-19 Youth World Cup from January 12 to February 4 in New Zealand.

West Indies are the defending champions and the two surviving players from the World Cup winning squad have been appointed to leadership roles in the team.

Wicketkeeper/batsman Emmanuel Stewart of Grenada has been named captain and all-rounder Kirstan Kallicharan from Trinidad and Tobago is the vice-captain.

The other players from Trinidad and Tobago selected in the team are batsmen Keagan Simmons and Cephas Cooper along with all-rounders Te-Shawn Alleyne and and Matthew Patrick.

All five TT players have been busy preparing for the tour and will be using the North/South Under-19 Classic to get much needed match practice.

“The squad is well balanced with a number of ‘multi-dimensional’ players, which will provide depth in all departments.

This team is still very young in comparison with the previous squad, but its already a very united group that works well together and has a great desire to learn and improve,” said West Indies Under- 19 coach Graeme West.

He continued, “First and foremost, we are going to give 15 talented, young players the opportunity to represent the West Indies, experience touring overseas and play ‘Youth’ International Cricket. We learnt a great deal about a number of the players in the WICB Regional Super50 Tournament. This will be another opportunity to find out which players have the skill-sets to perform consistently at this level and establish who is going to stand up when put under pressure by quality opponents.” The Under-19 World Cup winning coach noted, “We want to win both series and establish the patterns of play and combinations that will be taken into the World Cup. We will want to see growth and improvement in every game we play and we will want contributions from all members of the squad, so it will be important that the team acclimatises quickly and gets off to a good start.”

SQUAD: Emmanuel Stewart (captain), Kirstan Kallicharran (vice-captain), Te-Shawn Alleyne, Alick Athanaze, Joshua Bishop, Cephas Cooper, Mykile Louis, Darren Nedd, Matthew Patrick, Joshua Persaud, Jeavor Royal, Kegan Simmons, Jeavier Spencer, Bhaskar Yadram, Nyeem Young.

ITINERARY West Indies Under-19s to South Africa - July 4 – Tour Match vs South Africa Under-19 XI – Varsity Oval, Durban July 6 – Tour Match vs Kwa-Zulu Natal Academy – Varsity Oval July 9 – First Youth ODI – Chatsworth Oval, Durban July 12 – Second Youth ODI – Pietermaritzburg Oval, Pietermaritzburg July 14 – Third Youth ODI – Pietermaritzburg Oval July 16 – Fourth Youth ODI – Pietermaritzburg Oval July 19 – Fifth Youth ODI – Chatsworth Oval West Indies Under-19s to Zimbabwe - July 23 – First Youth ODI – Venue to be decided July 26 – Second Youth ODI – Venue to be decided July 29 – Third Youth ODI – Venue to be decided