Host charged up for inaugural Windwards T/20 Cricket Competition

St. Vincent and the Grenadines will host the inaugural Winlott Inc. Windwards T/20 Cricket Competition from Friday, July 9 to Sunday, July 11.{{more}}

And, since Friday, a 14 member team under Coach Nixon McLean has been making intense preparations to take on St. Lucia, Dominica and Grenada.

Local selectors have named two newcomers, Andre Hunte and Drumo Toney, to carry the fight to the other competing teams.

Hunte, who plays for ASCO One in the local Bottlers First Division, gets his chance for national representation with some good allround performances over the years.

“ I feel real great, it is a dream come true,” Hunte, a left hand all-rounder, told SEARCHLIGHT last Saturday morning at the Arnos Vale Two Playing Field, as he took a break from the training session.

The hard-hitting Toney, on the other hand has always been among the list of players called for national trials, but the OLA boutique Radcliffe batsman has never succeeded in making the final cut, at any of the forms.

Toney was part of this country’s training squad for the first ever Stanford 20/20 competition, back in 2006.

The Vincentian team will be once again captained by wicketkeeper/batsman Linden James.

Also included in the team are seasoned players Deighton Butler and Kenroy Peters, both left-arm medium fast bowlers.

The pacey Kesrick Williams is also included, along with all rounders, Alston Bobb and Rolando Wright.

The bowling department also has off spinner Dyke Cato.

The batting mainly rests with Miles Bascombe, Donson Andrews, Salvan Browne, Donwell Hector and Hyron Shallow.

Manager of the team Eric Browne told SEARCHLIGHT that despite being in the heart of Carnival celebrations, practice sessions will go ahead daily with a few breaks and will conclude next week Wednesday.

At stake in the competition is a winner’s purse of EC$ 10 000.

Following the competition, a Windward Islands team will be selected to participate in the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) T/20 Competition set for Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados next month.

The Windwards will join Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, the Leewards, Jamaica, the Combined Campuses and Colleges, Guyana and Canada.

Barbados will host the first eight games from July 22 to 25, while the next eight will be held in Trinidad from July 28 to 31. August 1 has been reserved for the final.

The leading regional team will be the sole representative from the West Indies in the Champions League Twenty20 in South Africa in September this year. (RT)