Guyanese Hemraj, Paul and Smith for two-week white ball skills camp in Antigua

Cricket West Indies (CWI) has named 16 players for a white ball camp to be held at the Coolidge Cricket Ground from Thursday, March 31 to Wednesday, April 13.

There are three uncapped players in the list – Guyanese fast bowler Nial Smith, all-rounder Nyeem Young and Keacy Carty, the middle-order batsman.

Young was a member of the West Indies Rising Stars squad at the 2020 ICC Under-19 World Cup, and has also played for Barbados Royals in the Caribbean Premier League.

Carty has been a consistent member of the Leeward Islands Hurricanes squad for the last five years. He was Player-of-the-Match in the final of 2016 ICC Under-19 World Cup won by the West Indies.

Smith has played all three formats for Guyana at the senior level. Smith aside, two other Guyanese- opener Chandrapaul Hemraj and all-rounder Keemo Paul- have been included.

Head Coach, Phil Simmons outlined that the camp will focus on improving skill sets as the West Indies look ahead to two major global events over the next two years – the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in Australia later this year and the 2023 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup to be played in India.

Simmons said: “The camp will be a chance for us to do some work with players in the white ball formats, players who might have a chance to play in the coming white ball teams later this year. The most important thing is that we will be doing things in the camp that we have not been doing well, such as rotating strike, sweeping, and playing spin better. It’s about working on things that we’re not 100 percent at yet. We have several players at IPL who will be working at their games as well, so we’re working with the players here to make sure they keep up the standard and improve.”

Simmons added: “Keacy Carty was a reserve for the team which toured India in February. If there was any reason why players couldn’t go he was the next batsman in line. He is one of the players we have looked at before. Nyeem Young is one of the potentially good young all-rounders we have around the Caribbean, so we just want to bring them in and get them to understand what we expect of them if they get to that level.”

The camp will be held at Coolidge Cricket Ground, the new home of Cricket West Indies in Antigua.

It will also help preparation for West Indies 2022 schedule with home and way tours all featuring white ball cricket.

In late May, West Indies travel to The Netherlands for the first ever three-match One Day International Series between the two teams, to be followed by the rescheduled three-match ODI Series against Pakistan which was postponed in December.

These fixtures form part of the ICC ODI Super League, where teams will have the opportunity to secure points to try and secure one of the top seven places, excluding hosts India, to gain automatic qualification for the 2023 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup.

West Indies will then be hosting tours by Bangladesh, India and New Zealand with all three series featuring white ball matches. Details of these tours will be announced in the coming weeks.

PLAYERS: Nkrumah Bonner, Darren Bravo, Shamarh Brooks, Keacy Carty, Roston Chase, Justin Greaves, Chandrapaul Hemraj, Shai Hope, Brandon King, Kjorn Ottley, Keemo Paul, Anderson Phillip, Raymon Reifer, Nial Smith, Devon Thomas and Nyeem Young. (windiescricket)