Ja, Barbados do battle in U-15 tournament (9 Apr 1998)

April 9, 1998

Ja, Barbados do battle

Versel Thompson , Freelance Writer

CRICKET: Hosts Jamaica will hunt for their second Carib Cement Under-15 cricket title when the tournament bowls off today with three matches.

In today's games Jamaica meet defending champions Barbados at Kensington Park, Trinidad and Tobago take on Guyana at Lucas and the Leeward Islands do battle with the Windward Islands at Melbourne Oval. All matches start at 10:00 a.m.

The tournament, now in its third year, will be played on a round robin basis.

Jamaica, inaugural champions in 1996, have retained Donovan Pagon, Durale Forrest and Danza Hyatt who played in the tournament last year in St. Lucia and coach Dennis Miller is confident that Jamaica can pull off a win against champions Barbados.

"I am confident our players, who have been adequately prepared, will produce their best cricket and do well this year," Miller said.

"There is as much talent now as we has ever had and we will not be depending on just pace bowling like what we did last year. We will depend also on our spin bowlers, like two years ago when we won the competition with a balanced bowling attack," he said.

The players selected were fairly consistent throughout the trials and Pagon, the Jamaica captain, and Forrest, both right handed batsmen and fast medium bowlers, and Hyatt a right-handed batsman along with Vanroy Wallace a reserve player last year should provide valuable experience.

Jeff Broomes, the Barbados manager, expressed the desire to win back to back titles saying: "We have a legacy to uphold as champions but from year to year there are so many changes to the teams that you cannot be sure what to expect from these youngsters.

"However, I think we have a talented bunch of players who are very well prepared and are willing to follow the instructions of Anthony Headley who took over as coach last year," he said.

"We do not have the devastating pace and depth of batting of last year, however, our boys are confident and I expect them to do well," Broomes said.

Barbados have retained Derek Bishop and Jason Crawford who played in the last tournament along with Rohan Nurse (captain) who will be playing in his third tournament.

Teams - Jamaica from: Donovan Pagon (captain), Peter Caballero, Omar Campbell, Durale Forrest, Franz Foster, Arden Frew, Wayne Gayle, Damion Gray, Jeffery Green, Danza Hyatt, Ricardo McKenzie, Andre O'Sullivan, Vanroy Wallace (manager Robert Lewis, coach Dennis Miller).

Barbados from: Rohan Nurse (captain), Jason Bennett, Derek Bishop, Dwayne Smith, Jemario John, Rohan Thompson, Ryan Nurse, Marvin Forde, Anthonio Thomas, Marlon Clarke, Kayode Pantophlet, Ryan Layne (manager Jeff Broomes, coach Anthony Headley)

Source :: The Jamaica Gleaner (https://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/)