Guyana captain Assad Fudadin and all-rounder Zamal Khan will be part of the West Indies squad for the Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh next year.
The two are the only Guyanese in the 14-man line-up, announced by the WICB for the tournament scheduled to run from February 15th to March 5th.
The squad will be led by trail-blazing Trinidad captain Denesh Ramdin, who was the first youth to lead his team to a double title, doing it during this year's tournament held here in Guyana last August.
Barbadian batting stylist Kirk Edwards edged out Fudadin and Windwards captain Liam Sebastian for the vice-captaincy, while senior West Indies fast bowler the hostile Ravi Rampaul will lead the bowling.
The feisty paceman who captured 8 wickets at an average of 15.12 in this year's Red Stripe Bowl, will have pint-sized Barbadian quickster Barrington Yearwood and the pacy Lionel Baker of the Leeward Islands as his partners. Restrictive left-arm spinner Rishi Bachan will lead the spin department with assistance from Khan and all-rounder Jonathan Augustus whose primary role will be that of power-thumping batsman.
The batting is loaded, with the classy Fudadin, Edwards, Sebastian, Ramdin, openers Xavier Marshall and Tishan Maraj along with Lendll Simmons in addition to Augustus and Khan.
Simmons, who finished the Red Stripe Bowl (in which the youth team participated for the first time this year) with 169 runs from four innings at an average of 42.25 is the second of three players with first-class experience, the third being Sebastian the gritty batsmen and spinner.
Barbadian first-class opener Martin Nurse was not included on account of poor form as only two specialist openers, Marshall and Maraj, were selected. That means that Ramdin, who will do duties behind the stumps can be asked to open the batting which he did with much success for Trinidad during this year's tournament and was the only other Under-19 batsman to score more than 100 runs in the RSB.
Marshall, who only managed 12 runs from three innings in the RSB, can count himself fortunate to have been selected while Guyanese all- rounder Zaheer Mohamed, Jamaican swing bowling all rounder Krishmar Santokie, Windward fast bowler Jean Paul and possibly Leewards spinner Larry Joseph had to have been difficult choices to omit.
The coach is former Guyana and West Indies off- spinner Clyde Butts, who is also the chairman of the junior selection panel which includes former West Indies players Ezra Moseley and Derrick Parry. Roland Sampath of Trinidad will manage the squad.
SQUAD: Denesh Ramdin (Captain, TT), Kirk Edwards (Vice captain, BD), Xavier Marshall (JA), Tishan Maraj (TT), Lendl Simmons (TT), Assad Fudadin (GY), Liam Sebastian (WI), Jonathan Augustus (TT), Zamal Khan (GY), Ravi Rampaul (TT), Mervin Matthew (WI), Rishi Bachan (TT), Lionel Baker (LI), Barrington Yearwood (BD), Clyde Butts (Coach, GY), Roland Sampath (Manager, TT).