Proper time management and self-discipline might sound like clichés, but it is exactly what has propelled Jamaica College’s Digicel Manning Cup Captain Duncan McKenzie to nine CSEC Subjects – all grade 1s with eight straight A profiles.

The 17-year-old player, who as a precocious 15-year-old netted three goals and had eight assists as Jamaica College (JC) won their 30th Manning title in 2019, is now trusted with the task of leading the “Dark Blues” this season to defend their crown and to lead his school’s pursuit of a record 31 Manning Cup titles.

The pressure has never been an issue for McKenzie based on his ability to successfully balance school work and sports over the years even as he is expected to lead with distinction on the field as he did in the classroom.

While in third form, he aced his Human and Social Biology CSEC examinations with a Grade 1 and a straight-A profile and followed up with passes in English A, English B, Mathematics, Spanish, Physics, Information Technology, Principles of Business and Principles of Accounts.

“I believe the key to balancing school work and football is proper time management and self-discipline. From a very young age, this has been emphasized by both my parents and I have learnt to structure my time well,” said McKenzie.

“Yes, it is difficult to strike the balance but it can be achieved. My advice to the younger generation is to practice good habits from early so that they become routine”.

Young McKenzie who idolizes Lionel Messi and loves Barcelona, one day hopes to play football at the highest level.

“I aspire to play football professionally. However, I would still like to pursue a degree in Accounting or Business Management,” he explained.

JC drew their opening match against Calabar 0-0 on Saturday and is joint third in what is arguably the group of death that includes five former champions in early group leaders St George’s College and Charlie Smith High School.

However, McKenzie is confident his team will rise to the challenge.

“I believe that we have a talented and highly motivated squad that is capable of defending our title,” said McKenzie.

“Playing without spectators is a new and strange experience. I believe that it lessens the performances of all teams in the competition.

“We are all aware of how important it is to have fan support at matches. They spur teams on and provide additional motivation for players to perform well. I hope that in the near future, we will be able to bring back fans safely to the games.”

JC has again been tagged as favourites but McKenzie is not taking any team lightly.

“As a result of the pandemic, there are a lot of unknowns. Consequently, I regard all teams in the competition as challengers for the title,” he said.

West Indies coach Phil Simmons and Captain Kraigg Brathwaite have both backed wicketkeeper/batsman Joshua Da Silva to return to form during the upcoming two-Test series against Sri Lanka later this month.

Stafanie Taylor became just the third woman in history to score 5,000 ODI career runs, as she made a magnificent seventh century to lead West Indies Women to a superb victory. The star captain finished on 102 not out as the visitors reached 226-4 to secure the win in Sunday’s third and final match and sweep the series 3-0 over Pakistan Women.

Taylor played the ultimate captain’s knock as she added a West Indies all-time record for the fifth wicket with Chadean Nation. The pair came together with the score at 98-4 and stayed together until Nation struck the winning run. They added an unbroken 128 in 23 overs. Nation found great confidence batting with his inspirational leader and made the highest score of her career – 51 not out off 67 balls with seven boundaries.

It was a day of records for Taylor. When she reached 42, she joined Mithali Raj of India and Charlotte Edwards of England as the only players in history with 5000 runs. She moved on to notch her seventh ton – and second of the year – another record for West Indies. It was the second century in the series for West Indies – following the career-best 132 by Deandra Dottin on the first match last Monday.

Earlier, Hayley Matthews played some stunning shots as she made 49 off 58 balls with eight fours, as she added 83 for the fourth wicket with Taylor. This pulled the West Indies out of deep trouble after they slipped to 15-3 in the fifth over – as the top three batters all fell in single figures.

Matthews was named Player-of-the-Series for her outstanding all round performances. She was the second-highest run-maker with 132 runs at an average of 44 and the leading wicket-taker with seven wickets at an average of 14 runs per wicket.

Emerging young West Indies fast bowler Jayden Seales is looking to build on a promising start to his Test cricket career when the team faces Sri Lanka in its upcoming series.

The 20-year-old has been a revelation for the regional team, since making his debut against South Africa earlier this year.  In four games so far, the young bowler has claimed 16 wickets, including a five-for against Pakistan in August.

On debut, Seales impressed with his ability to swing the ball at pace and also the consistency and quality of his length deliveries. 

“I was satisfied with my performances in my debut series and the series after that but it just for me to look to build on those performances now and try to improve in the areas that I can improve in,” Seales told members of the media on Saturday.

On his first overseas tour, the bowler faces unfamiliar conditions on the subcontinent, which typically favours spin bowlers, but he remains determined to try and make an impact.

“For me it’s just about trying to go out there and execute my plans as best as I can, to try and work with the conditions and see what I can get done for the team.”

West Indies captain Stafanie Taylor struck a masterful unbeaten century on Sunday to lead West Indies Women to a comprehensive six-wicket victory with six over to spare over Pakistan Women and complete a sweep of the three-match series in Karachi.

Chasing Pakistan’s Women’s 225-7, Taylor scored 102 not out after coming to the rescue of her team that has slumped to 15-3 within the first five overs.

Taylor shared in an 83-run fourth-wicket partnership with Hayley Matthews, who made 49, and then a match-winning unbroken partnership of 128 with Chedean Nation, who scored 51 not out, her maiden ODI half-century.

Taylor faced 117 balls for her score that included 12 fours while Nation struck seven boundaries facing 67 balls during the match-winning stand.

Anam Amin, who did the early damage by dismissing the in-form Diandra Dottin for 4 and Shemaine Campbelle for one, finished with 2-45 from her 10 overs. Diana Baig, who dismissed Rashada Williams for 6, returned figures of 1-36 from her eight overs.

Sadia Iqbal, who snagged Matthews’ wicket, finished with 1-36 from seven overs.

Earlier, sent in to bat, Pakistan Women owed their best score of the series to opener Muneeba Ali, who scored a patient 58. She and Ayesha Zafar staged an opening stand of 49 before the latter was out caught and bowled by Aaliyah Alleyne (2-41) for 13.

Ali and Javeria Khan put on 74 over the next 20 overs as the West Indies bowlers tightened their grip on the innings. Ali eventually fell to Taylor in the 31^st over with the score on 123. Six runs later, the pressure began to take a toll as Taylor ran Khan out for 13.

Two balls later, Alleyne picked up her second wicket when she bowled Omaima Sohail for 27.

Iram Javed and Aliya Riaz held up the progress of the West Indies bowlers with a 44-run fifth-wicket stand that was eventually broken when Javed was dismissed by Shakera Selman for 26.

Riaz would eventually get Pakistan Women past 200 with her unbeaten 44 that helped set up a decent total for the West Indies Women to chase.

Selman took the wicket of Fatima Sana for nine to end with figures of 2-40.

Baig was run out for nine off the last ball of the innings.

West Indies batsman Jermaine Blackwood will be looking to impact the upcoming series against Sri Lanka perhaps even by taking a with a ball.

The middle-order batsman’s previous encounter against the Sri Lankans earlier this year did go quite to plan after managing just 42 runs in two matches with a high score of 18.  Ahead of the upcoming series Blackwood who admits to being a better frame of mind this time around is determined to set things right.

“To be honest, the last time I played Sri Lanka my mind wasn’t right at that time, but now my mind is fully there, so, I’m looking forward to a very good series,” Blackwood told Windies cricket.

Despite not typically being a threat with the ball, Blackwood believes he might even be able to make an impact with the ball, should the surfaces in Sri Lanka live up to their usual reputation of being more friendly to slower bowling.

“I always tell the skipper that I want to bowl a few overs because I have the golden arm.  As you can see, I always get one of the wickets.  So it will be very interesting this series if I can get a few overs.”

North American, Central American, and Caribbean Athletic Association (NACAC) secretary Keith Vincent says the association expressed shock at the decision of the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) to award Canada’s Maggie MacNeil the best female athlete of Tokyo 2020 ahead of Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson-Herah.

The 29-year-old Thompson-Herah became the first female sprinter in history to claim the Olympic sprint double twice after emphatic victories in the 100 and 200m metres.  In Tokyo, Thompson’s winning time of 10.61 was the second-fastest ever recorded over the event and eclipsed the 33-year-old Olympic record held by the United States’ Florence Griffith-Joyner.

Her dominant 21.53 win in the 200m, not only decimated the rest of a quality field but was also the second-fastest time in history, bettered by only Griffith Joyner's world record of 21.34, set in 1988.  Thompson-Herah went on to add a third gold medal with the Jamaica team in the women’s 4x100m relays.

The Canadian MacNeil also won three medals in Tokyo, which included a memorable victory in the women’s 100m butterfly event where she came back from seventh place at the halfway mark to eventually win gold.  The 21-year-old also claimed a silver medal in the 4x100m freestyle and bronze in the 4x100m medley.

“NACAC has expressed its disappointment with the results of the Award from the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) for Best Female Athlete at the Tokyo Olympics held earlier this year,” Vincent, who is also general secretary of Saint Vincent and The Grenadines Olympic Committee,” wrote in NACAC’s weekly bulletin.

"For the several NACAC member countries in attendance at the Awards Ceremony held on the evening of Sunday, 24 October, in the city of Heraklion on the Island of Crete, Greece, it came as a shock that Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson was not the eventual winner.”

Thompson-Herah who was voted as NACAC’s Female Athlete of the Year last week is among the favourites for the IAAF Female Athlete of the Year award.

West Indies Test captain Kraigg Brathwaite is expecting a strong performance from the team’s pace bowlers in Sri Lanka, despite conditions on the subcontinent tending to favour spin bowlers.

The last time the regional team faced Sri Lanka away, in 2015, it was the part-time spin of Brathwaite that stole of as the batsman claimed six wickets in an innings.  The frontline pace bowlers Kemar Roach (2), Jason Holder (3), Shannon Gabriel (1) failed to have a huge impact on the series, with the exception of Jerome Taylor who claimed 6 over two games.

Although the captain admits the surface is likely to favour spinners, Brathwaite is confident the Windies quicks will have a big role to play.

We haven’t been there as yet to see the surface but there’s always a role for the fast bowlers.  Shannon Gabriel really led the way in Bangladesh in the first Test, bowling with some good pace, then Kemar Roach getting an early wicket in the morning was very crucial.  Obviously, Jason wasn’t there but is always crucial.  So, I do believe that possibly there being spin-friendly pitches, I think the pace bowlers will do well.

“I can see them getting wickets.  It’s really about building pressure but seamers are very important and obviously, Shannon will bring some aggression and I look forward to seeing the guys operating.”

West Indies batting great Shivnarine Chanderpaul has been appointed batting consultant for the West Indies Rising Stars U19s squad for the upcoming High-Performance Camp in Antigua to prepare the team for the ICC U19s Cricket World Cup to be hosted in the Caribbean in January and February 2022.

 Chanderpaul, the most capped player in West Indies Test history, enjoyed an outstanding career during which he played 164 matches and made 11,867 runs at an average of 51.37.

 He is the most recent addition to Head Coach Floyd Reifer’s coaching staff and will be part of this preparation period, which runs from November 15 to 28 at the Coolidge Cricket Ground in Antigua.

“We want to welcome Shivnarine Chanderpaul to the Rising Stars U19s group and we look forward to him working with our young players at this critical stage in their development pathway,” said CWI Director of Cricket Jimmy Adams.

“Shiv has a tremendous amount of cricketing knowledge and know-how and he will be a great addition to the coaching staff. We already have another icon of the game in Sir Curtly Ambrose, who has been involved with the squad since the camp in August, as well as several other outstanding coaches.”

Meanwhile, the CWI selection panel has named 28 players for the camp that follows the previous camp and trial matches held in August. The squad includes two newcomers – Jaden Leacock, a right-arm fast-medium bowler and right-hand batter and Kevin Wickham, a right-hand batter and right-arm wrist spinner – who will be assessed by the coaches and selectors.

Robert Haynes, CWI’s Lead Selector for the West Indies Rising Stars U19s said he is looking forward to this next phase of the squad’s preparation.

“Having had a month-long camp in Antigua in August followed by the 18-man West Indies Under-19 squad tour of England, I am looking forward to seeing the continued progress and improvements of the various players as well as to interact with them to understand their thinking and approach to the game,” he said.

“The two-week camp will include four practice matches along with continued skills and physical development, and it’s an opportunity for all players invited to stake a claim for selection for the series at home and the ICC Under19 Cricket World Cup.”

The West Indies Rising Stars U19s are preparing for the prestigious ICC U19 Men’s Cricket World Cup tournament, which will be hosted by CWI in the Caribbean from January 4 to February 3, 2022. Before the World Cup, West Indies are due to finalise their squad preparation with a five-match series at home. Further details will be announced once officially confirmed.

FULL SQUAD: Onaje Amory, Anderson Amurdan, Ackeem Auguste, Justin Beckford, Teddy Bishop, Carlon Bowen-Tuckett, Jaden Carmichael, McKenny Clarke, Rivaldo Clarke, Amrit Dass, Giovonte Depeiza, Nathan Edward, Andel Gordon, Sion Hackett, Justin Jagessar, Jordan Johnson, Kyle Kissoondath, Johann Layne, Jaden Leacock, Nicholas Lewin, Anderson Mahase, Matthew Nandu, Shaqkere Parris, Kelvin Pittman, Shiva Sankar, Vasant Singh, Isai Thorne and Kevin Wickham.

When the West Indies began their training sessions in Colombo on Thursday in preparation for their two-Test series against Sri Lanka later this morning, there were several areas of immediate focus for the players.

Among them, combatting the home side’s dangerous spinners.

Head Coach Phil Simmons, in his first media session on Thursday, revealed that successfully playing Sri Lanka’s spinners was high on their list of priorities like it was in Bangladesh where the West Indies emerged 2-0 winners over the home side in February.

“I think there will be a heavy dose of spin coming from them because we saw it when they played England they even opened the bowling with a spinner, so we are going to be focusing a lot on how we combat that spin with the new ball and then bat as normal after that because we played spin alright in Bangladesh,” Simmons revealed.

“We did what we had to do to score the runs we needed and to win the games, so we need to bring that same sort of mentality we had on that away tour and preparation today started like that.”

Doing well against Sri Lanka’s spinners, Simmons explained, could prove to be crucial to time the West Indies batsmen spend at the crease, rotating the strike and not losing wickets playing rash shots out of frustration at being bogged down.

That also will be something he and his players will pay some attention to, Simmons revealed.

Rotating the strike will be “definitely an area of focus, especially when you’re playing against quality spinners,” he said, “you have to continually change their mode, especially if we have left and handers at the crease so it is something that we are going to be discussing and putting into practice.”

The West Indies will play a four-day warm-up match in Colombo starting on Sunday, November 14 because they take on Sri Lanka in the first of two Tests beginning on November 21 at the Galle International Cricket Stadium.

The second Test is set to begin on November 29 at the same venue.

Former fast bowler Richard ‘Prof’ Edwards has called for Cricket West Indies (CWI) to take a radical approach to rebuild the fortunes of West Indies cricket, following a dismal showing at the ICC T20 World Cup.

Having entered the tournament as defending champions, the regional team crashed out of it after losing four of the five games played.  The team’s lone win came against Bangladesh and even more concerningly they were comfortably beaten in the rest of the matches.

The batting line-up, which featured the likes of experienced players Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard, Lendl Simmons, Andre Russell, and Dwayne Bravo was particularly disappointing as they never seemed to come to grips with the circumstances.

“At no time when you saw West Indies batting did they give any idea or feeling of permanence there.  The batsmen looked they were in a hurry to make shots, all the time looking for attacks.”

“When I compared how they batted with Finch and Warner of Australia for example, Rahul and Rohit for India, Williamson, and co in New Zealand and people like Babar Azam, it was looking like two different games altogether.  The class that those other players exuded when they were batting, it didn’t look like at any time we were going to stick around for very long,” he added.

In light of such a catastrophic failure, Edwards believes major changes are needed, perhaps even with the leadership of the unit.

“You have to come in and be fairly cold about what you want to do. You want to try and look at the team and the players.  How long they’ve been playing? Are they still producing?

“I would think that now you have to come in and be a little ruthless, look around and try to pick, but who are you going to pick?  Do you have the resources? Whatever it is, now is the time to build.  The supposedly experienced players never came to the party.”

Olivia Grange, Jamaica’s Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sports says she supports the country’s intention to host the 2022 Carifta Games but warns that that will only happen once the necessary approvals and required funding are achieved.

President of the Jamaica Athletic Administrative Association (JAAA) had announced that his association had been given the green light to host the Games next Easter during a Special Congress of the North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletics Association on Saturday.

Jamaica’s move came after Guyana, which was supposed to host in 2022, indicated that it would be unable to fulfil its obligation.

On Wednesday, Minister Grange appeared to back Gayle saying it would be a timely venture considering that Jamaica celebrates 60 years of independence in 2022.

“I am in full support of Jamaica hosting the 2022 Carifta Games as a part of the country’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations with the National Stadium in Kingston being the venue,” she said about the competition that would take place between April 16 – 18.

“When news came that the selected host for 2022, Guyana, was unable to fulfil the obligation, it was felt that the only country which could step up to the plate at such short notice would be Jamaica. Not just because of the ongoing dominance of our athletes, but because of our experience in staging similar events with athletes in spite of the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Following the cancellation of the 110-year-old ISSA Boys and Girls Championships because of the pandemic in March 2020, Jamaica successfully staged the championships in May and then the National Athletic Championships in June. The island also hosted several track meets including the Jamaica Olympic Association-backed Olympic Destiny Series leading up to the national championships.

“We are very proud of the successful staging of the ISSA Boys and Girls Championships (CHAMPS) earlier this year. We have no doubt that we are equal to the task of staging the Carifta Games next year,” Minister Grange said.

“With the cancellation of this important event (Carifta) for 2020 and 2021, junior athletes have missed out on the opportunity to gauge where they are at this critical stage of their development. Therefore, I feel that no effort should be spared in us trying to host the 2022 event.

“I have indicated to the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) and the North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletics Association (NACAC) that as Minister I would do my best to assist in making it possible. Carifta is of course the premier event for junior athletes across the CARICOM region with athletes competing in two age categories: under-17 and under-20.”

However, the minister was quick to indicate that all the necessary elements needed to be in place before the government would be able to give its full blessing.

“I must say, however, that although Jamaica is interested in hosting the event, it is subject to several approvals and sign-offs as well as the requisite funding. The Ministry is therefore working very closely with the JAAA and NCACAC to satisfy all the requirements in order for me to make an official announcement,” she said.

 “It is in our best interest to do everything to have the Games held here.  Among all the other good reasons, our tourism, hotels in Kingston in particular, will definitely benefit.”