BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - FOLLOWING the recent launch of the CWI Emerging Players Academy, Cricket West Indies has announced the list of the 15 participants who will start their high-performance training and development sessions at the Coolidge Cricket Ground (CCG) in Antigua from today (Jul. 1).
A number of representatives from the West Indies Rising Stars U19 programme are among the participants, including Teddy Bishop and Kevin Wickham, who both made centuries for the West Indies Rising Stars U19s during the ICC U19 Men’s Cricket World Cup.
Also included are Keagan Simmons, Kirk McKenzie and former captain Ackeem Auguste, along with left-arm spinners Ashmead Nedd and Joshua Bishop as well as left-arm fast bowler Ramon Simmonds.
Also selected to the Academy squad is allrounder Nyeem Young.
Nevisian Anderson Amurdan was included in a six-man reserve list.
The programme is aimed at Building Capacity of players, support staff and high-performance resources; Management of Talent; Personal Development – develop person first and then the player; Demonstrate Best Practice, including recruitment, selection and preparation; and Accelerating Player Development and increasing readiness of players for international cricket.
The players were welcomed by CWI’s Director of Cricket, Jimmy Adams, who said: “We want to offer a special welcome to the young men who have been selected to form the first cohort for the CWI Emerging Players programme. They are a talented group of players, who we are sure will enjoy the benefits of their hard work.
“CWI has been looking at ways of bridging that critical gap between our junior and professional levels and this Academy initiative provides us with a great start towards achieving this. This will also play an important role in building regional capacity within High-Performance player support – technical, physical, mental, and personal development.”
The plan for a CWI Emerging Players Academy was first announced in March and will function as a nexus between regional junior and senior teams while supporting the development of talented players between the ages of 19 and 25.
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