Kyle Corbin will have the responsibility of captaincy and the role of Barbados' premier batsman on his shoulders.

by EZRA STUART

THE CREAM of the Caribbean youth cricketers will be on show in Barbados from today when the 2008 TCL West Indies Under-19 tournament bowls off.

A confident host country start their hunt for the three-day title against the Windward Islands at the 3Ws Oval, Cave Hill Campus; defending champions Guyana oppose Leeward Islands at Kensington Oval and Trinidad and Tobago face Jamaica at Banks.

"Playing at home is an advantage. We have a very balanced team with four quality fast bowlers, two quality leg-spinners at this level and a good batting line-up with bowlers who can bat down the order," coach Dexter Toppin said yesterday.

"The youngsters are very eager to perform at this level," added Toppin, who noted that the team had a very productive eight-day camp, benefiting from advice from former West Indies batsman Carlisle Best and ex-Barbados senior team coach Hendy Springer.

Barbados will be led by prolific top-order batsman Kyle Corbin, who represented the West Indies at the Youth World Cup earlier this year. Both Corbin and the experienced Rashidi Boucher, a selectee for the 2008 Stanford Twenty20 tournament played in St Kitts last year.

Corbin may move down from his regular opening position to No.3 with West Indies Under-15 run-machine Kraigg Brathwaite set to make his debut at this level.

This will be a massive elevation for the ice-cool 15-year-old Combermerian, who has already scored 30 centuries in various age-group matches and local and regional youth competitions.

Toppin noted that even though Barbados had consistently beaten the Windwards in recent years, he wouldn't be under estimating them.

"I am not taking them lightly because it is a different team this year and one or two players are back," he said.

There are a number of new batsmen in Barbados' line-up such as Roston Chase, Dario Cummins, Jason Holder, Marrodon Bend and Raymon Reifer, who are all eligible to play next year.

"Corbin and Boucher are our two most experienced batsmen, the only ones to play at this level before, so we are banking on them to give Barbados a good start," Coppin said.

Barbados' fast-bowling attack will be spearheaded by the pacy Randall Hoyte, with support from slippery swing bowler Diego Stuart, improving Jeremy Marshall and all-rounder Holder.

Hoyte, Marshall and Holder are all six-footers and along with Stuart, should extract whatever bounce there is in the pitch. With the restriction of six overs in a session for fast bowlers and the susceptibility of Windwards' batsmen to slow bowling, both leg-spinners Shadd Simmons and Dario Vaughan are likely to play together.

Vincentian all-rounder Keron Cotoy will captain the Windwards, who will depend heavily on talented all-rounder Dalton Polius and Rudolph Paul, who posted the highest score of 109 in the Windwards' Under-19 tournament.

Other key players are Marvin Small and Dominican Cavin Hodge, voted the Most Promising Player after amassing the most runs – 222 – in the Windwards youth tournament.

Please see Barbados team profiles on next page.