By Ron Fanfair
Overseas Cricket Club all-rounder Kesavan Juvarajan will lead Canada in next month’s Americas Under-19 cricket tournament in Florida.
The right-handed batsman and medium-pacer scored just 102 runs (av. 9.27) and took six wickets (av. 20) in 16 Toronto & District Cricket Association Elite matches last season. The 14-member squad also includes promising all-rounder Nikhil Dutta and wicketkeepers Tristan Ali and Darren Ramsammy, whose father Robin was also a wicketkeeper who played for Vikings, Cavaliers and Overseas and also represented Canada for eight years until 1992.
Juvarajan and Ramsammy were teammates on the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) City of Toronto Mayor’s team that toured England two years ago while Dhutta and Ali were on last summer’s touring side.
A total of nine team members are from Ontario while the rest are from other provinces. Manitoba is represented by all-rounders Akhlas Umar and Trevor Manoosingh; fast bowler Maninder Singh Aulakh is from British Columbia; middle order batsman Sudeepta Aurka lives in Alberta and spinner Axay Patel is from Quebec.
The team will play five warm-up matches in Trinidad early next month before flying directly to Florida for the four-team Americas tournament that starts on February 6.
The other competing teams are host country the United States, Argentina and Bermuda.
The full Canadian squad is Kesavan Juvarajan (capt.), Maninder Singh Aulakh, Nikil Dhutta, Darren Ramsammy, Kyle Edgehill, Tristan Ali, Sudeepta Aurka, Gowthaman Balachandran, Rayankhan Pathan, Akhlas Umar, Trevor Manoosingh, Jobanjot Singh Sidhu, Akash Shah and Axay Patel.
The alternates are Vidura Ratnayake, Anand Sekhon, Jatinder Matharu, Michael Walton, Amanpal Gillar and Nitish Kumar who is expected to be with the national senior side at the World Cup that begins on February 19.
The junior squad has been practicing in Scarborough for the past three months.
“They have been working extremely hard on all facets of the game and I am confident that we are going to do well in Florida,” said Cricket Canada’s junior coordinator, Wijay Senathirajah.