Bracing for Impact - JCA ready if Windies fail to qualify for World Cup

President of the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) Wilford 'Billy' Heaven said that his association has put several measures in place to brace for impact if the West Indies fail to make it through the ICC World Cup Qualifiers scheduled to begin today.

The Caribbean team has looked wobbly in the pre-competition warm-up matches so far, losing to Afghanistan in the first match and being pulled from the jaws of defeat in the second match against the United Arab Emirates by spinner Nikita Miller, who was eliminated for a mere 115 runs batting first.

Miller's spell of five wickets for 20 runs saved the Caribbean team further embarrassment.

UNMATCHED BRAND OF CRICKET

"It would impact cricket generally. West Indies cricket has always had a pride of place in world cricket. The brand of cricket that we play in the Caribbean is unmatched anywhere, and if we are not in the major competition (World Cup 2019), of course it will impact, and what impacts West Indies cricket trickles down to the territories," Heaven said. "But we are focusing on the development of our cricket with the schools programme."

He added: "We now have an active school programme with ISSA (Inter-Secondary School Sports Association). ISSA sits on our youth cricket committee, and we work with them closely for that. We have a coaching programme where we are training level-one coaches in our schools. So we are hoping that notwithstanding any fallout that may arise [from] not qualifying, we put ourselves in a position to continue to develop our cricket nonetheless and to look forward to our contribution to the regional team."