West Indies Under-19 players Javon Searles (left), Shamarh Brooks (centre) and Kemar Roach on their return from Trinidad yesterday. The trio played a number of trial matches in Trinidad, impressing the selectors enough to be chosen for the tour of Pakistan in January, and the Youth World Cup in Sri Lanka in February.

by EZRA STUART

THREE CHEERS for teenaged Barbadian cricketers Javon Searles, Shamarh Brooks and Kemar Roach for making the West Indies Under-19 team for the International Cricket Council's Youth World Cup in Sri Lanka.

The limited-overs tournament will be played from February 5 to 20 in Colombo.

Before going to Sri Lanka, West Indies will visit Pakistan for five One-Day matches from January 18 to 30.

The trio returned home yesterday from a successful two-week training camp in Trinidad and Tobago, to a low-key welcome, as no officials from the Barbados Cricket Association were on hand to greet them. The NATION team was the only media team present.

But it did not dampen their celebrations as they were soon embraced by happy parents, who had waited more than two hours at the Grantley Adams International Airport for their arrival.

"I feel pretty okay about my selection. It is a good foundation to have in the case of making the senior team, so I am just going to take it step by step and see how it goes from here," Searles said.

Searles, a tall, fast-bowling all-rounder and student of Coleridge and Parry, said it was the perfect gift for him as the squad was announced Wednesday on his 19th birthday.

Brooks, a 17-year-old leg-spinning all-rounder from The Lodge School, was also delighted to gain selection on the regional youth team.

He had scores of 39, 32, five and two and took one for 12 in four overs, one for 22, and two for 43 off ten overs in the trial matches.

"I am very proud of my achievement. It is a big step from playing First Division (cricket).

"Now I am back in Barbados I just want to keep working hard. It is not the end of the road yet.

"I still have the warm-up games in Pakistan and we have to go back to Trinidad on the 10th (next month), so I just want to keep fit and keep working hard," Brooks said.

Roach, a 17-year-old pacer from Alexandra School, said hard work paid off for him.

"I feel it is a great honour. I really worked hard at my game. I did a lot of work and it actually paid off.

"My performance in the practice games was good. My pace was coming along quite nicely. I kept my line and length, bowled economically and picked up a couple of wickets and the selectors were impressed," he said.

Roach, who captured two for 25 off nine overs and two for 44 off ten overs in two practice matches, said he benefited from advice by coach Roderick Estwick, manager Roger Harper and former West Indies all-rounder Bernard Julien.

Searles had scores of 31 not out and 35, and took two for 21 and one for 30 in two warm-up games before picking up an injury towards the end of the camp which forced him to miss the last two trial matches.

"The camp was pretty intense. There was a lot of training every day but you had to fight it out.

"Unfortunately, I couldn't play in the last two games but at the end of the day, we all made the team," Searles noted.

* ezrastuart@nationnews.com