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By Neto Baptiste
Leg-spinner Hayden Walsh Jr believes he still has a lot to offer as a cricketer and refuses to give up on his playing career.
His statement comes just one week after he was omitted from a list of retained players issued by the Leeward Islands Hurricanes as they gear up for the regional Super50 set to bowl off later this year.
“I am in a position where I don’t think I am finished yet. I don’t think I need to go and do coaching or I need to go and do something else. I love to play cricket and from a very early age I said to my dad that I really want to play cricket so for you to come and tell me, you’re not going to play cricket anymore, it’s very hard for me to take,” he said.
Walsh was speaking on the PowettPlay Podcast with former West Indies and Leeward Islands opening batsman, Kieran Powell, during which he admitted it has been a frustrating year. The Antiguan’s omission ironically comes just weeks after he expressed disappointment and frustration over what he said is the absence of adequate practice facilities for Leeward Islands players based here in Antigua.
Walsh said he has reached out to a number of teams hoping to grab a play-for-pay contract after refusing to sign a document presented to him by the Leeward Islands Cricket Board that would have seen him enter the player draft.
“To be honest, I have been trying to find the answers and I’ve been trying to find the rationale but it really doesn’t add up because I have been trying to figure out if I have fell off that badly. It keeps me up at nights because I would wake up early in the mornings like dazed [asking] did that really happen so it’s really hard to take right now to be honest,” he said.
“I’ve lost a little motivation to be honest, so at the moment it’s a little hard to take and when you’re in these types of situations you actually think about where your career is going and you actually think about life after cricket,” he added.
In July, Walsh spoke exclusively with Observer media, expressing frustration over the unavailability of suitable training facilities here in Antigua during off-season preparations.
Since then, the player said he had been told by those in authority that he would not be retained by the Leeward Islands franchise.
“I’ve been asking the head coach [Steve Liburd] what was the situation on my future [with the franchise] so he was like, the chairman of the selectors [Samuel Best] was supposed to get to me and let me know what’s happening but off the record, I am not being contracted so the selector will get back to me and let me know the details,” Walsh said.
“The chief selector calls me probably like 20 minutes after and he was like, Mr Walsh, you need to come down to the office to sign a document to say that you are going to be in the draft so I was like, what are you saying, I am not being contracted? He was like yeah and I said ok, thank you,” he added.
In January of 2024, the LICB announced it would move its headquarters from St Kitts to Antigua where it expects players would have a greater opportunity to play cricket and have access to the top training facilities here.
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