The batting of the Windward Islands representative team is of concern to the cricket authorities of the Windward Islands Cricket Board of Control (WICBC).{{more}}

This view was expressed by Elson Crick, who spoke on behalf of the WICBC at the closing and presentation ceremony of the 2014 Windwards Under-19 two-day cricket tournament here last Friday at the Arnos Vale Playing Field.

“We have to start to pay more attention to our batting, and that is something president Emmanuel Nanthan wants to address,” Crick announced.

To strengthen his concern, Crick noted that in the tournament, there was a lone century and three individual scores over 50.

“Surely in a competition like this, you have to have better performances,” he stated.

In advising the players of their role in the process of helping to turn things around, Crick told them: “At a very young age, you have to start adopting very good cricketing habits, good batting habits.”

Crick, who is also a director of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), and the first vice-president of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Cricket Association, pointed to the need for coaches to be held accountable.

“We have to start to put more pressure on your coaches and take cricket real seriously,” Crick said.

Crick also used the occasion to give a pep talk to the selectees of the Windwards Under-19 team, which would participate in the regional tournament in Guyana later this month.

“I want to really focus on your cricket when you go there; go there and make us proud in the Windwards … For too long, people have been looking at us as the Cinderellas of West Indies cricket and we want to really destroy that whole myth and let them know that we are just as good as players from Barbados, players from Trinidad and so on and so on,” Crick emphasised.

Crick got support for his concerns from chairman of the Under-19 selection panel, Grenadian Raphael Croney.

Before revealing the Windwards 14-member team, Croney prefaced his announcement, stating: “It was a difficult time for us this time around… The question of the batting has been our main concern.”

The other members of the selection panel were Vincentians Lance John and Nixon Mc Lean. (RT)