By Neto Baptiste
President of the Bethesda Sports Club, Kenny Lewis, has commended the team’s young fast bowler Kelvin Pitman, after he was named in a 26-man squad to continue preparations for the West Indies Rising Stars Under-19s tour of England next month.
The 18-year-old Pitman is the country’s only under-19 player at the camp which is being hosted here in Antigua.
“The feeling would be one of excitement and I know I am expressing the sentiments of all the other team members, but we are not really surprised because of the fact that Kelvin has been going from strength to strength and what has really given him the added advantage is the fact that he is in a setting where he is always competing with a whole bunch of fast bowlers, so he has to be at his best at all times,” he said.
The fast bowler, who is part of a Leeward Islands contingent taking part in the preparatory camp, is joined by five other players from the sub-regional squad.
The other selected players are Jaden Carmichael (Nevis), Anderson Amurdan (St Kitts & Nevis), Carlon Bowen-Tuckett (St Kitts & Nevis), Onaje Amory (St Kitts & Nevis) and Nathan Edwards (St Maarten).
Akadianto Willett (St Kitts & Nevis), was the only Leeward Islands player not making the cut.
Lewis encouraged Pitman to keep working hard at improving and doing well at the camp.
“He cannot let down his guard and just go and make us proud because we know that he can and just as I said to him in writing, we know that he can achieve great heights and we just want him to do his best and to make us proud as he had been doing before. I have also said to him to don’t let complacency creep in,” he said.
According to a CWI release, the squad was selected following targeted coaching sessions and an eight-match trial series last week. The players will however continue training and planning sessions this week with a final 18-member squad for the tour to England to be named at a later date.
The West Indies Rising Stars U19 tour of England will feature six Youth One-Day Internationals at The County Ground, Beckenham and The Polo Farm, Canterbury from Saturday, September 4 to Friday, September 17.
Full Squad: Onaje Amory, Anderson, Amurdan, Ackeem Auguste, Justin Beckford, Teddy Bishop, Carlon Bowen-Tuckett, Jaden Carmichael, McKenny Clarke, Rivaldo Clarke, Amrit Dass, Giovonte Depeiza, Nathan Edwards, Andel Gordon, Sion Hackett, Justin Jagessar, Jordan Johnson, Kyle Kissoondath, Johann Layne, Nicholas Lewin, Anderson Mahase, Matthew Nandu, Shaqkere Parris, Kelvin Pittman, Isai Thorne, Shiva Sankar and Vasant Singh.