Cricket West Indies (CWI) on Sunday announced the West Indies Men’s Academy squad for the upcoming home series against Ireland Academy.
The two teams will play three List A matches (50-over) and two four-day first-class matches from November 17 to December 5. These matches will be played at the Coolidge Cricket Ground (CCG) and the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium (SVRS) in Antigua.
The West Indies squad is made up mainly of the players in the West Indies Academy programme, who have just played in the CG United Super50 Cup as well as the Headley-Weekes Tri-Series earlier this year.
The CWI Selection Panel has included four new players.
Two of these are teenagers – Jordan Johnson, a left-handed middle-order batter, and fast bowler Isai Thorne. The others are Junior Sinclair, a right-handed spin-bowling allrounder, and Kadeem Alleyne, a batting all-rounder.
Johnson was the stand-out player in the West Indies Rising Stars Men’s Under 19s tour to Sri Lanka in September when he made three centuries.
Sinclair was impressive in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) and was a member of the Guyana Amazon Warriors which won their first CPL title on home soil in September.
Alleyne, who will play the white ball series, was impressive batting at the top of the order for Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) in the CG United Super50 Cup.
Thorne, who will play the red ball fixtures, bowled with pace and penetration on the Rising Stars Under-19 tour to Sri Lanka in August.
Graeme West, CWI’s High-Performance Manager said: “The Ireland Series has great significance to the CWI High Performance Pathway as it will be the first bilateral Series since the Academy programme was introduced in July 2022. Playing both 50 over and red ball four-day Series will provide the Academy squad with further opportunities to progress their skills following promising showings in the Headley-Weekes Series and more recently in the CG United Super50 Cup.”
West added: “The Academy squad really embraced the challenge that the CG United Super50 Cup provided, and it was encouraging to see the conversion of winning positions as this was a focus area coming out of 2022. We will look to see the learning over the past three weeks come through during the 50 over series against Ireland.”
“The two four-day games will allow the players to gain more experience and reinforce the gameplan that worked so successfully during the Headley-Weekes Tri-Series. With Kirk McKenzie and Kevlon Anderson graduating to their respective franchises, the series will provide Jordan Johnson with the platform to build on his exceptional performances for the West Indies Rising Stars Under-19 side in Sri Lanka.”
FULL SQUAD: Nyeem Young (captain), Ackeem Auguste, Joshua Bishop, Teddy Bishop, Carlon Bowen-Tuckett, McKenny Clarke, Jordan Johnson, Leonardo Julien, Johann Layne, Matthew Nandu, Ashmead Nedd, Kelvin Pitman, Junior Sinclair, Kevin Wickham, Kadeem Alleyne (white ball matches only) and Isai Thorne (red ball matches only).
MATCH SCHEDULE
17 November: 1st 50-Over match at SVRS
19 November: 2nd 50-Over match at CCG
21 November: 3rd 50-Over match at SVRS
25-28 November: 1st four-day match at CCG
2-5 December: 2nd four-day match at CCG
