By Brandon Corlette
With the Cricket West Indies (CWI) Regional Under-19 tournament looming, the Guyana U-19 team began their training camp on Monday last with 18 members encamped at the Chetram Singh Centre of Excellence, La Bonne Intention (LBI), East Coast Demerara (ECD).
This reporter visited the camp at LBI earlier this week and spoke exclusively to one of the more successful youth coaches, Guyana U-19 Coach Julian Moore.
The confident Coach disclosed that the camp started properly on Tuesday morning with an indoor fitness session. The camp, which will conclude on Monday, July 22, 2019, is aiming to target the players holistically.
“Obviously, the fitness aspect is high on our agenda; we had a fitness test a week ago and the scores weren’t that promising,” Moore revealed.
He added that the camp would get the fitness level up for the Guyana U-19 players. Moore noted that the players would further be exposed to skill work and would gain match readiness. “We have two practice matches before the ending of the camp and definitely by Monday, we will be ready to go,” Moore signalled.
The five-time One-Day title-winning Coach shared some sentiments on the 18-member squad that would be further reduced to a final 14 who would tour St Vincent and the Grenadians later this month.
“We have the basic squad that covers all the areas – a variety of left-arm spinners, four fast bowlers, a few openers and middle-order batsmen,” he said.
This 18-member squad that is currently encamped includes nine players returning from last year. Moore pointed out that this has always been an important aspect and management has spoken about this at the beginning of the camp.
“Having nine guys with previous regional U-19 experience in the team is pretty invaluable, not only for the experienced guys to go there and perform well for themselves, but their experience rubbing off on the newcomers,” Moore explained.
The Guyana U-19 team, who are aiming to clinch their sixth consecutive One-Day title at the Regional U-19 tournament, have had the luxury of welcoming players with previous regional experience. The 2019 edition of the CWI regional U-19 tournament will be played in only the One-Day 50-over format and the tournament will be hosted at the same venue that was home to the 2018 tournament.
Speaking on the conditions in St Vincent and the Grenadines, Moore revealed that a few pitches were a bit slow.
“They have a few pitches that will play nice and conducive for batsmen, but then you have a few that will see the ball spin a lot,” Moore disclosed.
This Guyana U-19 squad includes four West Indies U-19 players selected in the training camp and Ashmead Nedd, the prospective captain, has already played an International Cricket Council (ICC) U-19 World Cup for West Indies. Along with Coach Moore, Andy Ramnarine is the team manager.
The Guyana U-19 training squad reads: Ashmead Nedd (returning from 2018); Kevlon Anderson (returning from 2018); Alex Algoo (returning from 2018); Adrian Hinds (returning from 2018); Yeudistir Persaud (returning from 2018); Kelvin Umroa (returning from 2018); Qumar Torrington (returning from 2018); Sachin Singh (returning from 2018); Junior Sinclair (returning from 2018); Dequan Bamfield; Alphius Bookie; Daniel Mootoo; Garfield Benjamin; Nigel Deodat; Robin Williams; Seon Glasgow; Joel Spooner and Leon Swammy.
