ST. JOHN’S, Antigua – The Cricket West Indies (CWI) Senior Men’s Selection Panel today named the West Indies “A” Team for the upcoming tour of South Africa. The West Indies will play three four-day “Test” matches against South Africa “A” from 21 November to 8 December.
Joshua Da Silva, the wicket-keeper/batsman has again been named as captain following the West Indies “A” victory in the series in Bangladesh earlier this year. Tevin Imlach, the other wicket-keeper/batsman has been named as the vice-captain.
The 14-member squad includes five players with Test match experience: Da Silva; batsmen Kirk McKenzie, and Tagenarine Chanderpaul; along with fast bowlers Jayden Seales and Shermon Lewis.
The squad also includes three newcomers to the international level: Kevlon Anderson, the right-handed batsman; fast bowler Shamar Joseph, and allrounder Abhijai Mansingh. All three made their first-class debuts earlier this year.
Andre Coley is the Head Coach for the tour. The Assistant Coaches are Jimmy Adams, the former West Indies Test captain, and Shaun Tait, the former Australia fast bowler.
Lead Selector, the Most Honorable Dr. Desmond Haynes, stated that the Panel picked a balanced team to give the players more exposure in overseas conditions, similar to the previous “A” Team tour to Bangladesh earlier this year. The Panel also outlined that with the overlap between the England Men’s white-ball tour of the West Indies and this tour, the squad was picked with the development of players’ red-ball skills in mind.
Haynes said: “We had a very good ‘A’ Team tour to Bangladesh earlier this year when we saw several players improve and grow. That tour was great for development in the red ball format – we saw some excellent individual performances which led to the team’s overall success. Now with continued investment by CWI in our players, we want to see the same kind of progress on this trip to South Africa.”
Haynes added: “Da Silva did an outstanding job as captain in the ‘Tests’ in Bangladesh and he is again the captain for this tour. Anderson is a young batsman who has benefitted immensely from his time in the West Indies Academy, and we saw his quality of batsmanship in the Headley-Weekes Tri Series. Mansingh showed quality with bat and ball in the first-class competition and got this opportunity to showcase his skills and progress. Joseph is a young fast bowler who has impressed everyone with his genuine pace, his tremendous fitness, and a huge desire to gain more knowledge about the game. You can see he wants to learn and get better.”
FULL SQUAD
Joshua Da Silva (captain)
Tevin Imlach (vice captain)
Kevlon Anderson
Tagenarine Chanderpaul
Kavem Hodge
Akeem Jordan
Shamar Joseph
Shermon Lewis
Jair McAllister
Zachary McCaskie
Kirk McKenzie
Abhijai Mansingh
Jayden Seales
Kevin Sinclair
Team Management
Andre Coley (Head Coach)
Dwain Gill (Team Manager)
Jimmy Adams (Assistant Coach)
Shaun Tait (Assistant Coach)
Barrington Gayle (Physiotherapist)
Asia Joseph (Strength & Conditioning Coach)