BAS­SETERRE – The fu­ture stars of West In­dies crick­et are set to shine as the Crick­et West In­dies (CWI) Ris­ing Stars Men’s Un­der-19 50 Over Cham­pi­onship bowls off this week in St Kitts and Nevis.

Sev­en tal­ent­ed squads, rep­re­sent­ing the Unit­ed States, Lee­ward Is­lands, Wind­ward Is­lands, Ja­maica, Trinidad & To­ba­go, Bar­ba­dos, and Guyana, will bat­tle for re­gion­al su­prema­cy in what promis­es to be a thrilling three-week tour­na­ment.

The ac­tion be­gins on Thurs­day, Ju­ly 3, and runs un­til Thurs­day, Ju­ly 24, with match­es be­ing played across venues such as the Elqueme­do Wil­lett Park (Nevis), Cona­ree Crick­et Cen­tre (St Kitts), St Mary’s Park, Cay­on (St Kitts), St Paul’s Crick­et Grounds (St Kitts)

The St Kitts Crick­et As­so­ci­a­tion (SKCA) has ex­pressed im­mense pride in host­ing the pres­ti­gious event, call­ing it a gold­en op­por­tu­ni­ty for lo­cal fans to wit­ness the next gen­er­a­tion of Caribbean crick­et­ing tal­ent.

With sev­en play­ers from the Fed­er­a­tion, five from St Kitts and two from Nevis named in the Lee­ward Is­lands Trop­i­cal Wave squad, home sup­port is ex­pect­ed to be strong.

The SKCA em­pha­sised that the tour­na­ment is not just about com­pe­ti­tion but al­so about in­spir­ing young ath­letes across the na­tion.

“This is our chance to see the fu­ture of West In­dies crick­et right here in our back­yard,” the SKCA said in a state­ment. “We urge every­one to come out, fill the stands, and cheer for every bound­ary and wick­et. Let’s show our pride and make this an un­for­get­table ex­pe­ri­ence.”

Crick­et en­thu­si­asts, fam­i­lies, and sup­port­ers are en­cour­aged to at­tend the match­es and en­joy high-qual­i­ty U19 ac­tion. The SKCA hopes for a vi­brant at­mos­phere, with fans bring­ing their flags and en­er­gy to sup­port both the lo­cal tal­ents and the ris­ing stars from across the re­gion.

CMC