CAS­TRIES–Cam­paign­ing in his third year at the TCL West In­dies Un­der-19 lev­el, Jer­maine Black­wood is de­ter­mined to let his ex­pe­ri­ence count for de­fend­ing cham­pi­ons Ja­maica. The right hand­ed bats­man has al­ready scored 311 runs in just three in­nings af­ter two rounds of match­es in the 2010 com­pe­ti­tion. He hit a mas­ter­ful bound­ary-stud­ded 204 against Guyana in the last round against Guyana, a match which end­ed in a draw at the Gros Islet Play­ing Field here Wednes­day. "It is a won­der­ful ex­pe­ri­ence for me so far in this year's tour­na­ment," Black­wood told CMC Sports.

"I al­ways knew I had it in me to do so. I worked very hard for it. My coach (Robert Samuels) en­cour­aged me to bat long hours, ses­sion by ses­sion, and it paid off in the end." The 18-year-old all-rounder point­ed out his stint with the West In­dies Un­der-19 team in New Zealand last Jan­u­ary in the ICC Youth World Cup had been a tremen­dous boost to his con­fi­dence go­ing in­to this year's com­pe­ti­tion. "I tar­get­ed 420 runs be­fore I came in­to this com­pe­ti­tion, but it seems like I will have to re­vise that now," said Black­wood, who hails from the north­west­ern parish of Hanover.

"I would like to get at least one oth­er hun­dred in the com­pe­ti­tion." (CMC)