It was a very interesting turn of events when the West Indies Cricket Academy demolished their seniors in the trial matches, staged to help prepare WI teams for the A team tour to Bangladesh in the middle of May and for Test-cricket responsibilities versus India and New Zealand at home in the next few months.
The matches were included to give the youths some experience against senior players as part of their development, only for them to turn the tables, whipping Team Headley (TH) by a convincing seven-wicket margin. It was a shocker, to say the least, for the more experienced TH side, after trailing by 64 runs in the first innings, to be bundled out for 122 in their second turn at the crease.
Apart from skipper Joshua Da Silva’s delightful century and Akeem Jordan’s 54 in the first innings, there wasn’t much else to cheer about when the supposedly more accomplished TH batted. Hence the academy, having played better cricket, took the lion’s share of the praise, much to the surprise of this critic.
I could honestly say I didn’t know much about the Academy of Emerging Players, so when I noticed the way they approached the cricket, I had to sit up and pay attention.
The academy started in July last year, when Jimmy Adams, Cricket West Indies’ director of cricket, got together with cricket officials in the WI territories and invited promising players between 19 and 25 to participate in a cricket camp of 25 players of various abilities, to be trained holistically to become top-flight cricketers.
As the opportunity presented itself to prepare teams for international competition, a Test team and an A team, it was considered wise to measure exactly what sort of progress was being made in order to compete successfully in the future.
What better way than a competition of trial matches against two teams with more experience?
Who would guess that the yet unproven youngsters, many of whom had not even played a first-class game, would run away with the spoils of the contest? For after trouncing TH, they used that confidence to crush Team Weekes in the first innings with remarkable batting performances.
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After Team Weekes (TW) were sent in to bat, there were some sound innings played. Zachary McCaskie, who opened the batting, put together a well-played 93, followed by Brandon King, well known for white-ball cricket, who scored a sprightly 92, both batsmen missing out on hundreds. Then Kevin Sinclair at no 6, better known for his off-spin bowling and celebratory somersaults on capturing a wicket, played a dynamic innings of 86. Wicketkeeper Jahmar Hamilton chipped in with 57.
In spite of no batsman getting a hundred, TW still managed to build a strong total of 401. Although the pitch was flat and batting was a bit easier than in the first game, nonetheless, the runs were on the board and had to be scored. Could an inexperienced team do it against their more imposing countrymen?
The academy batsmen did not let their team down. It was
