Floyd Reifer’s focus is entirely on the 2022 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup, and “getting these boys as ready as possible, making sure that they develop on and off the field. We are focusing on producing the elite athlete in terms of how they operate on and off the field. The last Yo-Yo test we did, fifteen of the sixteen ran 40-plus so we are seeing improvement, we are seeing development so that is important to us going forward.”
He was speaking following the conclusion of the fourth Youth ODI at the Arnos Vale Cricket Ground on Monday January 03, 2022. Assessing the pace attack, Reifer said that “we did a lot of work with the seamers in the programmes throughout the year. There has been major improvement. It goes hand in hand that the stronger you are the better you can perform.”
Also please with the performance of the bowlers was skipper Ackeem Auguste, pointing out that the bowlers stood out, and “we are never satisfied with just winning. We want to be dominant.”
Speaking of the three-prong pace attack of Johann Layne, Isai Thorne, and McKenny Clarke, he said “It is a talented bunch, and every one of them can take is capable of holding their own.”
Speaking of the fast bowlers, Reifer said Layne bowled in good areas, while McKenny Clarke backed him up. He went to stated that young Thorne has ability but he needs to regain fitness. After the camp in 2021 in Antigua and the players returned home, Thorne’s programme was severely affected by the heavy rainfall in Guyana.
However Reifer is confident that with the work programme planned, all the seamers “will be on point going into the World Cup.”
Auguste who took four outstanding catches off the fast bowlers; one of them which left his teammates open mouth in awe, said that despite the catches which lifted the team’s moral even higher, “there is still a lot to learn.”
The West Indies Under-19 skipper was quite pleased with the competiveness of the Series. The 4-match Youth One Day Internationals against the South Africa Under-19 in St. Vincent and the Grenadines were played on December 26, 28, and 30, 2021, and January 03, 2022, and ended in a 2-all draw.
“It was a fairly competitive Series. It was low scoring and there was a lot of competition between the teams,” Auguste stated. He added that the presence of Floyd Reifer the head coach, along with Sir Curtly Ambrose and Shivnarine Chanderpaul in the coaching staff, “is very good as there is a lot to learn from them, and we are looking to improve as a unit.”
Auguste said that despite losing the third match by one wicket, once one steps onto the field they want to win, “but we kept our focus” going into the fourth match.”
South Africa won the third Youth ODI at the Cumberland Playing Field by one wicket, and the West Indies the fourth which was played at the Arnos Vale Cricket Ground by 19 runs, to square the Series 2-all.
The West Indies have been blessed with an abundance of talent, but a number of factors have contributed to the senior Men’s team’s demise over the past two-and-a-half decades.
Reifer added that the team was unable to play many games due to the ongoing Covid-19 situation, a situation which has affected the players. However he is pleased with the progress made despite the many obstacles that they have had to overcome.
“There was no youth cricket over the past two years. Yes we went to England but that was the first time in a long time that they played any cricket. It is the first four games as a unit, while the other countries were able to play ten and fifteen games.”
Reifer is not daunted by the recent senior Men’s team’s record and the effect such may have on the current West Indies Under-19 team going into the World Cup. “We have always had talented youngsters. They have made tremendous improvements over the months. We worked with them remotely, and right now it is about awareness and understanding the different situations in the game, being on top of the game. These are the little things that they will learn playing cricket.”
The 2021 – 22 Youth One Day Internationals was drawn 2-all, but West Indies received the victor’s trophy at the end of the fourth Youth One Day International, having won the 2017 Youth ODI Series which was played in South Africa 3-2.
Robertson S. Henry is a multi-time award winning sports journalist from Saint Lucia, currently residing in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. His coverage of sporting events both locally and regionally, not just landed him the Sports Journalist of the Year Award on numerous occasions, but recognition from the International Olympic Committee in 2005.
Henry began his fulltime career in journalism with the now defunct Crusader Newspaper in 1994, and worked with the Voice Newspaper until 2007. He established the sports website sportcaraibe, and believes “sports is the fourth pillar in the socio-economic development of the Caribbean.”
Henry has also produced work for a number of regional newspapers including the Trinidad Guardian, Stabroek Newspaper of Guyana, and in 2010 did a photo-shoot of Australian cricket captain Michael Clarke for the Australian Herald.
