High Performance Manager of the West Indies Under-19s, Graeme West, says that he is impressed with the Guyanese quartet currently training in the provisional World Cup squad.
The four Guyanese include Berbice duo of Isai Thorne, a tall and slender fast bowler from Rose Hall Canje and Port Mourant’s batting sensation, Rampertab Ramnauth. Additionally, there is West Indies under-15 batsman who can keep wickets as well as bowl decent off-spin, Mavindra Dindyal. Dindyal has copped the Most Valuable Player award at the Regional under-15s on two occasions and represents Georgetown Cricket Club locally.
Rounding off the four is Matthew Nandu who has built a reputation as a solid middle order batsman, capable of batting long periods with temperament often compared to West Indies batting legend, Shivnarine Chanderpaul.
West, during an exclusive interview with this publication emphasized that while the provisional squad consists of 45 players from the Caribbean, this does not guarantee them anything and it very well is open to players from outside the pool to break into the squad when the tournament is hosted in the Region next year.
“Based on observations in regional tournaments they are a couple of young guys, that actually would have another on the 19 World Cup after this one, but they certainly impressed me when I saw them in Antigua in 2019 at the Under 15 regional tournament,” West stated.
He added, “Dindyal has certainly impressed, a lot of people that have seen him in the short space of time he has been involved in regional cricket and toured England with the under-15s so, he’s certainly one for the future and they’ve got Thorne and Rampertab, two lads that are very young, but have shown a lot of talent so I think we’ve actually got about 10 players in this group, that would be eligible for another World Cup. So again, thinking long term, this is great preparation for them and you also have Matthew who we’ve kind of followed quite closely in the last couple of months because he’s been doing very well in local cricket in Guyana. He makes big scores and that’s something that you’re looking for from young batsmen. So the signs are good.”
West said that the players have been doing their training in their respective territories due to the Covid-19 pandemic but they are hopeful to have at least a regional under-19 tournament or a few bilateral series and a camp prior to the World Cup.
