THERE WAS NO SOUNDING of trumpets or the blowing of bugles as the future of West Indies cricket was quietly ushered in at the High Performance Centre at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill yesterday morning, with the start of training for 15 of the young, bright cricketing prospects.
The 15 prospects, who millions of Caribbean people will be pinning their hopes on of recapturing lost cricketing glory and world dominance of the sport, will spend the next two years honing their physical, mental and cricketing skills under the tutelage of qualified experts.
The head of the centre, Toby Radford, has at his disposal Andre Coley, who was the coach of the West Indies team to the ICC Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand, as well as William Bourne, who was the successful coach of Barbados for a number of years.
The lone female in the set-up is trainer Shannon Lashley.
The five Barbadians in this first batch of students are the experienced Shamarh Brooks, Kevin McClean, Kyle Corbin, Shane Dowrich, and the six-foot-six-inch Jason Holder who was the most outstanding bowler at the Under-19 ICC World Cup.
The other players selected are Andre Creary, who captained the WI Under-19 in New Zealand this year, and Nkrumah Bonner of Jamaica; Keron Kottoy and Delorn Johnson of St Vincent and the Grenadines; Kieran Powell of Nevis, Shannon Gabriel of Trinidad and Tobago; Brandon Bess, Veerasammy Permaul and Ravindra Shandrika of Guyana; along with Devon Thomas of Antigua who represented the regional side against Bangladesh last year.
The first day’s session concentrated on various testing of the candidates and determing their individual fitness levels, with many of the players reacquainting themselves with former teammates or getting to meet new partners in future regional sides.
