By Neto Baptiste
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Leeward Islands Cricket Board (LICB), Peter Abraham, said the body continues to work with Antiguan all-rounder Rahkeem Cornwall as he seeks to attain the level of physical fitness required for a recall into the senior regional men’s team.
“We know what Rahkeem can do and we are fighting for him to regain his West Indies spot. Rahkeem came back to St Kitts putting in the work and he is currently in Antigua putting in the work and we know the results will speak for themselves in the coming games.
“What we found is that because Rahkeem was a CWI contracted player and then came down to a Leeward Islands contracted player, the communication wasn’t as seamless in terms of targets. We saw the issue that happened last year and we are working with the medical panel to ensure that going forward this is not a stumbling block in terms of Rahkeem being picked. We were not quite happy with what happened last year but we keep moving forward because at the end of the day we all want the best for West Indies cricket and Rahkeem is a big part of that … going forward and playing for the West Indies,” he said.
Cornwall was surprisingly left out of the West Indies Test side for the two-Test series against Australia from November 29-December 12 in Australia 2022, with reports he had been replaced by Barbados’ all-rounder Roston Chase, after initially been told he was in the squad.
Since then, questions have been raised regarding his fitness and whether it played a factor in his de-selection.
Abraham assured that although Cornwall may not be able to meet the same physical requirements as a more agile player would, he has been hitting his targets.
“His target may not be the same as a Peter Abraham but he has targets; so it is not to say that Rahkeem is not doing any fitness requirements, he has his fitness targets. There are targets that go from person to person based on medical issues so a person who got a knee injury and is coming off of rehab, his targets will be readjusted until he gets to that stage where he can then meet the international target,” he said.
Cornwall is currently representing the Leeward Islands Hurricanes in the West Indies Championship.