Wilden Cornwall: Leeward Islands not sitting on their laurels

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Former national and Leeward Islands captain, Wilden Cornwall (right) chats with West Indies and international batting star Chris Gayle. (File photo)
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By Neto Baptiste

The coronavirus pandemic has stymied the ability of the Leeward Islands Cricket Board (LICB) to effectively bring all its players together at their training base in St Kitts in hopes of preparing for the still uncertain regional season.

But, it has certainly not thwarted the efforts of some to prepare in hopes that players will get an opportunity to put their talents on display despite the ever present coronavirus threat.

Assistant coach with the sub-regional board and former player Wilden Cornwall said players in all age categories are being put through their paces on a regular basis in the various countries and that things are flowing smoothly.

“We know that we cannot fly back to St Kitts because St Kitts is still closed at the moment so you would realise that what I am doing here now is doing work at Liberta with the under-15s, under-17s and the guys who are under contract with the Leeward Islands. So everybody is getting a fair share and that is really good because schools are closed now so the workload is really good and the numbers are really good as well,” he said.

Cornwall, who was the last Leeward Islands captain to lead the team to championship glory when they became joint champions of the Regional Super50 with Barbados in 1998, is hoping the extra work will serve to adequately prepare the younger players for the regional youth tournaments.

“The youth tournaments, when they come up for these guys in their respective age groups, they would be pretty much ahead from where they used to be. Training wise, we didn’t really put up a good showing [the last time around] but we are trying our uttermost best to rectify those issues and look at some of the ways and means we can improve some of these guys and especially at that level,” he said.

In March, Cricket West Indies (CWI) announced that it had taken the decision to suspend all CWI Tournaments and face-to-face group meetings for a minimum of 30 days. They subsequently crowned Barbados Pride champions of the Regional Four Day Championships, abandoning the final two rounds of matches left in the competition.

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