By Ricky Kissoon
Twenty U19 players have been invited to participate in a training camp from June 11-12 in New York which will help decide the final 14-man squad going to Ireland for the ICC U-19 World Cup Qualifier in July. The new faces included in the 20 are the following: (1) Sohaib Choudhry, (2) Prashanth Nair, (3) Krish Goel, (4) Akash Jagannathan and (5) Amarnauth Persaud, (6) Gregory Sewdial.
Zahib Tariq.
It’s encouraging to see that three New York boys, with the addition of Trevor Singh and Cameron Mirza are given the opportunities to impress the selectors, but is selection based on merit or friendship? Talented U19 all-rounder Zahib Tariq from New York is once again overlooked by the New York selector, Sew Shivnarine. If Shiv wanted to assess this youngster, maybe he should have attended some matches played by Franklin D. Roosevelt HS, because Tariq is the main reason why FDR remains unbeaten heading into the 2011 PSAL Twenty/20 playoffs. An advise to USACA U19 selector Shivnarine, please venture out of Queens, especially the “Cage” and try to assess the other youngsters that plays cricket in the different leagues. Zahib has represented the NYCR at the U15 and U19 levels in 2010, and continues to show why he deserves an invite to the upcoming U19 training camp. Zahib Tariq who averaged 93, scored an unbeaten century, scored an unbeaten half-century at the U-15 Junior Nationals last year in NJ, and played an important role in NY winning the Eastern Conference Championship was neglected by the USACA selectors. Tariq is the most complete junior cricketer in the New York Cricket Region and it’s ashamed that he’s not rewarded for his outstanding effort.
Stats from the 2010 USACA U15 Nationals
| Last Name | First Name | Total Runs | 100’s | 50’s | Avg. | Wickets | Highest Score |
| Wilson | Randall | 239 | 1 | 1 | 119.5 | 2 | 163 * |
| Tariq | Zahib | 186 | 1 | 1 | 93 | 7 | 112* |
| Ross | Trevis | 109 | 0 | 1 | 36.33 | 6 | 70 |
Tariq a prolific young all-rounder plays club cricket in Brooklyn Cricket League, and it’s a fact that many NY youngsters whom have gone on to make the USA U19 team hails from the Eastern American Cricket League. The EACA has produced talented U19 cricketers such as Andy Mohammed, Gregory Sewdial, Prashanth Nair, and Trevis Ross, but all players must be rewarded for their outstanding performance regardless of where they play. Youngsters are becoming demoralized when they know for a fact that performance does not mean anything to the selectors anymore. Furthermore, they tend to neglect all regional cricketing activities, and just focus on playing club cricket for fun. Tariq has informed me that he may not be available for U19 cricket this year, because of the unfair selection process conducted in the New York Cricket Region.
Why should the selectors continue to send wrong messages to the youngsters whom were not selected on merit? This will only encourage them to “big up” them chest and wear their shirt collars upright expressing body language of egotistic behaviors.
