Sports
UNDER 19 CRICKETERS LEAVE FOR NAMIBIA
by David Harris
The West Indies’ 15-member squad departed from the Grantley Adams Airport earlier this week for their campaign at the International Cricket Council (ICC) Men’s Under-19 World Cup which is being hosted by co-hosted by Zimbabwe and Namibia.
The squad which is captained by Barbadian Joshua Dorne will play two warm-up games against Ireland and Japan on January 10 th and 13th respectively, before starting Group D campaign against Tanzania on January 15th. The young West Indians will then play against Afghanistan on January 18th, before closing out the group phase against South Africa on January 22nd.
All three matches will be played at the High-Performance Oval, Windhoek, in Namibia, with the top three teams from each group advancing to the Super Six. The top four Super Six teams will move on to the semi-finals which will be held on February 3rd and 4th respectively. The final will be held on February 6th at the Harare Sports Club in Zimbabwe.
According to head coach Rohan Nurse, the squad is ready for all the challenges they are likely to encounter at the prestigious tournament.
“For ICC events; they are standards across what the surfaces are like, and with the squad we have assembled, we have a good group of young fast bowlers. We have good attacking wrist-spinners as well, and we are prepared for anything. We know that they are pretty arid conditions –but we are pretty much ready forever comes before us”, Nurse told journalists shortly before the team left Barbados.
Nurse explained that the tournament is not only about results, but also about shaping young cricketers into future professionals.
