Zaheer Ali: Invest in West Indies U-19s

Zaheer Ali: Invest in West Indies U-19s
Wednesday, February 17 2016

FORMER TRINIDAD and Tobago and West Indies Under-15 cricket captain Zaheer Ali is calling on the WI Cricket Board (WICB) to invest in the members of the victorious West Indies Under-19 team as soon as possible.

The West Indies Under- 19 team, captained by Shimron Hetmeyer, won the ICC Under-19 World Cup on Sunday, by virtue of a five-wicket triumph over India at the Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur, Bangladesh.

In a media release yesterday, Ali said, “I think this is an ideal opportunity to commence the rebuilding of West Indies cricket which has been the topic of discussion for some time.” The 35-year-old Ali, who captained the West Indies Under-15 team at the Lombard Under-15 Challenge Cup in England in 1996 (the team also included future Test players Marlon Samuels, Sewnarine Chattergoon and Ryan Hinds, as well as TT all-rounder Sherwin Ganga), continued, “we must recognise and appreciate that this achievement has the capacity to transform and restore pride and confidence in Caribbean cricket which appears to be lacking.

“It is important for us to manage this success effectively and ensure that it is used as a catalyst for positive change at all levels throughout the Caribbean.” Ali added, “these youngsters understand what it means and feels to win an international tournament which has been absent from our cricket for some time apart from the T20 version which must be channelled to the various levels especially the senior level.” The founder of the Zaheer Ali Foundation expressed his delight with the West Indies Under-19 team’s bowling and fielding displays, during the World Cup.

“It is evident that there is an abundance of talent throughout the Caribbean and we must adopt measures to preserve and nurture the talent if we are to compete successfully at the senior level,” he said.

“The young Windies team has proven to the world that we are a cut above the rest at the youth level and perhaps a signal of our resurgence in international cricket in the near future.

“I take this opportunity to express congratulations to the management of the team as well as everyone who has invested and supported the young Windies prior to and during the tournament.” He continued, “I am pleased to see two of our local players in the team, namely Kirstan Kallicharran and Jyd Goolie, who are both graduates of the TT CB (TT Cricket Board) National Academy 2015 and both of whom were recipients of training rendered by the Zaheer Ali Foundation.

I am confident that they would be an asset to Trinidad and Tobago Cricket as well.”

Not only should they invest in their coaching and training but they also should ensure that the players don't get distracted by T20 leagues. I think they should make a rule that nobody under-21 is allowed to go play other leagues. It will be very restrictive but it should be implemented for few years.

It is important for our young cricketers to continue with their education—even if all the time away from schools makes it hard for them to finish their graduation. It will be something they can go back to in case the cricket dream doesn’t come true for some reason. But aside from all that, it is important to stay connected to school and college because it will mean they have friends outside cricket, conversations outside cricket and life experiences that are not connected to cricket. It will give them the perspective needed to become well-rounded adults.

West Indies Cricket desperately needs good emerging talent in order to get them out of the precarious position that it is in at the moment.
The best thing for the West Indies Cricket Board to do now, seeing that these crop of under-19s seems to be a promising bunch, is to formulate a program to contribute to their well-being and further development as an incentive to strengthen their commitment to the game.

hopefully we will soon have a new administration to replace the rotten to the core wicb