Floyd Reifer appointed West Indies U-19 head coach

St John’s: Cricket West Indies (CWI) has named Floyd Reifer as the new head coach of the West Indies Under-19 team.

Reifer is the former interim West Indies head coach, who currently is the head coach of the West Indies Emerging Player & High Performance Programmes, and will lead the development of the squad in the lead-up to the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup that will be held in the Caribbean early in 2022.

He also was the batting coach for the St Kitts & Nevis Patriot in an earlier season and currently is the Head Coach of the Jamaica Tallawahs in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL).

“It is great to be coaching the young players of the West Indies and trying to guide them as we prepare for the World Cup at home. I am excited to have already begun the work and I’m sure the young men are also very enthusiastic. In speaking to many of the possible team members, they are all eager to start the programme. They have not been playing much cricket due to the COVID-19 situation, so it is great that CWI has started to put the preparation in place for our team a year out from hosting the World Cup,” Reifer said on the appointment on Thursday.

“We have solid plans. The programme we have in place is science and technology based and it looks at all aspects of their game, including cricket fundamentals and personal development. It is very intense and based on creating an ‘elite athlete’ with a professional mindset. We have held meetings with coaches and the Territorial Boards and they are all happy with the direction we are going. Within that programme we hope to have High Performance training camps during the year, the annual Under-19 Rising Stars tournament in the summer, followed by hosting the South Africa U19s for five One-Day matches in the Caribbean,” he added.

“Reifer was chosen because of his impressive track record in building and coaching successful development teams, including the UWI Blackbirds, the Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC), the West Indies Emerging Players and the West Indies A Team,” CWC said in a statement.

“I am happy that we have been able to appoint Floyd to lead our Under-19 programme and take the lads through to the World Cup early next year. The opportunity fits perfectly given his remit as our High Performance Head Coach, a role in which he has successfully overseen our High Performance squads in the recent past, including Emerging Players and ‘A’ teams,” said Jimmy Adams, CWI’s Director of Cricket.

“I would also like to thank Graeme West who coached the U19 team in the last three campaigns, including winning the Tournament in 2016. Graeme will continue to be involved in his current role as High Performance Manager. He will provide valuable support for Floyd in the planning and execution of the programme all the way through to the World Cup next year,” he added. (UNI)