By: Tito Chapman
One Kittitian cricketer is in a pool of West Indies emerging players eligible for selection in the 2020 Caribbean Premier League.
The list of 20 players that was disseminated yesterday by CWI includes Kittitian, all-rounder, Mikyle Louis.
The 19-year-old has represented the Leeward Islands and St. Kitts at the junior level. Louis made his List A debut for the West Indies Under-19s in the 2016–17 Regional Super50 on 31 January 2017.
Also included in the list of players is Leeward Island batsman Keacy Carty of Anguilla and the five youngsters who performed well for the West Indies during the recent ICC under 19 World Cup in South Africa, ( Kimani Melius, Jayden Seales, Ashmead Nedd, Nyeem Young and Kirk McKenzie).
CPL teams are now mandated to have two emerging players under the age of 23, meaning 12 players of the pool of 20 will make the cut.
The CPL takes its mandate of providing meaningful opportunities for the next generation of West Indies cricketers very seriously, and we are happy to have again collaborated with Cricket West Indies on the Emerging Players initiative. It is now up to the players to make the most of it
Michael Hall, CPL’s Tournament Operations Director. CWI’s Director of Cricket, Jimmy Adams expressed his pleasure at the continuation of the programme.
He said:
I am delighted that the Emerging Player program will continue into its second season, as it allows us to once again identify our best young talent and provide them with a program that will hasten their step up to the professional game. We have selected another talented group of young regional cricketers, out of which 12 players will be drafted into the CPL – two per franchise. This group will also have the benefit of participating in a specialized high-performance camp in Antigua prior to going off to the tournament. Later in the year, the program will again be using the Super 50 Cup to provide a competitive One-Day environment for the best young regional talent that would not otherwise get an opportunity within the franchise system.
Adams is grateful to the CPL and franchise owners for ther continued support.
The full list of players is as follows: Alick Athanaze (Windwards), Joshua Bishop (Barbados), Leniko Boucher (Barbados), Keacy Carty (Leewards), Roland Cato (Windwards) Joshua da Silva (Trinidad), Dominic Drakes (Barbados), Amir Jangoo (Trinidad), Nicholas Kirton (Barbados), Mikyle Louis ( Leewards), Kirk McKenzie (Jamaica), Kimani Melius (Windwards), Ashmead Nedd (Guyana), Jeavor Royal (Jamaica), Jayden Seales (Trinidad), Keagan Simmons (Trinidad), Kevin Sinclair (Guyana), Shamar Springer (Barbados), Bhaskar Yadram (Guyana), Nyeem Young ( Barbados).
