‘Under-15 competition a learning experience'

Barbados might not have won the West Indies Under-15 cricket championship, but the last week in Trinidad was not a total flop for the local team.

It was a satisfactory experience, bearing in mind that most of the guys were on a learning curve, manager Clinton St Hill told NATIONSPORT following the team's return home yesterday.

We had four or so guys who played last year and, having won three games and lost two, I would say it was a satisfactory performance.

Following an impressive start to the competition with a ten-wicket victory, Barbados finished the six-team competition in third place and St Hill said it was a position which reflected the quality of their cricket.

The two teams which came higher than us were the two teams that defeated us Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana, he said.

Both won the games primarily because we just didn't handle their slow bowling. We struggled against it and that was our demise.

St Hill, a member of the Barbados Cricket Association's board of management, made mention of the individual performances of allrounder Barrington Yearwood, captain Renaldo Parris, fellow opener Nicholas Squires and first-timer Shamarh Brooks.

Against the background that West Indies won the Under-15 World Challenge last year, St Hill said there were a few good players on show, but the Barbados manager also highlighted two negatives.

Unfortunately, there is no tour for these players, and also there were no selectors there to pick an All-Star XI to highlight the good players, St Hill said.

That was regrettable. Even if no tour is on, they should have at least picked a team and have the guys in a camp, maybe during the summer.

You can't just afford to let them die at this stage.