No pressure on U15s to take treble

Jermaine Lannaman, Gleaner Writer

Jamaica's Under-15 head coach, Terrence Corke, says while the main aim and intention is to win this year's regional tournament and capture the coveted treble, he will not be pressuring the players.

"While winning would be important, it is not everything. What we really want them to see is that they have learnt what we have been imparting on them during training sessions for the past three weeks," said Corke, who played for Jamaica during early-to mid-1980s.

"The boys know that we are double defending champions and would like to 'three-peat,' but we don't want to pressure them in terms of expectations. If they relax and play and enjoy themselves, then we should do very well," he added.

Holmwood Technical's batsman Tazwayne Creary, the brother of Jamaica and West Indies Under-19 captain, Andre, who is the other surviving member, failed a fitness test on his groin on Wednesday and has been replaced by St Elizabeth Technical's all-rounder Ramaal Lewis.

The team, which in addition to Corke was prepared by recently appointed West Indies Under-19 coach Andre Coley, and national technical director Jimmy Adams, will depart for the twin-island republic tomorrow.

They will open the defence of their title on Monday against staunch rivals Barbados, and will look to captain Holmwood Technical's Aldane Thomas and Campion's Brandon King, the only two surviving members from last year's team.

SQUAD: Aldane Thomas, Brandon King, Sadique Henry, Christopher Powell, Shawn Lodge, Tristan Coleman, Maquino Mindley, Devon Spencer, Kevon Williams, Roshane Manning, Keneil Anniford, Fabian Allen, Nicholas Hamilton, Ramaal Lewis.