The present challenges in West Indies cricket, specifically the lack of exposure for the region’s most talented youngsters, is a major worry for one of the game’s greatest players. Cricket icon, The Most Honorable Desmond Haynes, told Weekend Sport he is concerned about the development of talent in the region since the West Indies Academy team has been removed from the regional four-day first-class tournament. This is due to the financial constraints faced by the cash-strapped Cricket West Indies (CWI), the regional governing body for the sport.
“It hurts me to know that we can’t afford to play our academy players.
That is painful . . . but that’s the way it is today with the financial situation that CWI is in,” Haynes said in an exclusive interview. “We all realise that CWI is having some financial difficulties. I heard someone mention it before that it would be a good thing if we can give the cricket back to the territories and let them organise the cricket and then CWI just be the facilitator. It would be good if we could get some more cricket, what I would call ‘challenge games’. Even though this competition is short, if we could organise some competition cricket and more games after this competition is over.”
The legendary opening batsman is the mentor for the Barbados Pride team. He is an International Cricket Council Hall of Famer and ranks among the greatest opening batsmen of all time. He is the most capped Bajan in international cricket with 116 Test matches and 238 One-Day Internationals and scored over 16 000 runs with 35 centuries.
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