By Neto Baptiste
National cricketer and leg-spinner, Hayden Walsh Jr, still wants to play for the regional men’s team, even after having represented the USA at the International level.
Speaking on the Good Morning Jojo Sports Show on Wednesday, Walsh, who is currently the leading bowler in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) with 15 wickets, said he has sought ways of improving his game in hopes of impressing regional selectors.
“It’s just a matter of the selectors calling me on the phone and saying, ‘well, Hayden, we are going to select you for x date or whatever’, and I am looking forward to that. I mainly took the route to go to the US to better myself and to get some cricket under my belt and I think this will improve my game a lot more and to give myself a lot more exposure playing for the West Indies,” he said.
Last week, Walsh took four wickets in two overs to help defend 141 and carry Barbados Tridents to the play-offs of CPL.
With his four wickets for 26 runs against St Lucia Zouks on Sunday 29th September, Walsh rose to the top of the bowling charts in this edition of the competition, his 15 wickets in five innings coming at an average of 9.80.
The Liberta Blackhawks player also expressed a desire to play for the Leeward Islands in the CWI’s Professional Cricket League or PCL, adding that that is, however, up to the team’s selectors.
“You know what, they have their job to do and I have my job to do, and if I am not convincing them enough, I think that is fair enough by them. But it just gave me the drive to work harder and try and get myself better,” the player said.
Asked of his personal goal, Walsh said he just wants to be the best at what he does.
“I don’t know if you remember an interview we did a couple of years ago when you asked me that same question and I was like, by 2019 I would like to be the best bowler in the world and ii think right now I am close. It’s still 2019 so probably next year, I’d probably be off by one year but I am very close,” he said.
The Antiguan may, however, be pegged back in his desire to play for the regional men’s squad after having played for the USA at the senior level.
According to the ICC’s player eligibility laws, Walsh would have to sit out a period of at least three years before he could become eligible to play for the West Indies.
Walsh’s chances of representing the West Indies further dwindled after, in April 2019, the United States cricket team earned one-day international status for the first time in their 54-year history after ensuring a top-four finish in the International Cricket Council’s World Cricket League Division 2.