Players from the Saint Lucia High Performance Centre led the Saint Lucia fight with bat and ball in the host and defending champions securing a well-earned victory over Grenada in the Windwards Super 50 at the Daren Sammy Cricket Ground.
It was the first serious test of the HPC players since the establishment of the institution in December 2023, and Saint Lucia National Cricket Association President; Wayne Auguste, is pleased with the manner in which the HPC players handled themselves.
He recognized the quality of the opposition in Grenada, led by a seasoned campaigner in Ryan John, ably supported by several quality players, some of whom have played at the highest level.
“I am most proud of the players from the HPC in today’s match and the manner in which the players showed that the High Performance Centre is achieving the results that we envisaged when it was established,” Auguste stated.
Auguste said that: “the performances of Keon Gaston with 5 for 42, Noelle Leo a top-score of 71, Johnell Eugene a fighting 36 and 1 for 41, and Tyrel Chicot in a supporting role taking 1 for 31 and scoring 21 very important runs in the latter stage of the inning, were very commendable performances and showed a definitive improvement in skillsets.”
He recognizes that; “as in anything else, there has to be adjustments made, so the programme at the HPC will fulfill its mandate which is to produce the best cricketers possible.”
On Wednesday, Saint Lucia began defense of its title with a 2-wicket victory over Grenada who was dismissed for 241 in 46.2 overs. In reply, Saint Lucia got to their target scoring 245 for 8 in 34.1 overs.
Auguste pointed out that; “the scorecard will not show the true picture as during the game, the HPC based players demonstrated a level of maturity and professionalism becoming of the time spent in the programme to date.”
Additionally, Auguste expects not just the HPC-based players, but also the other players in the Saint Lucia National Senior Men Squad, “to continue performing at a high level, and that following the tournament, an assessment will be carried out to determine what areas are in need of fine tuning as we seek to get the optimum out of Saint Lucia’s national cricketers.”
