ORONDE Bascome is unavailable for the upcoming Under 19s Americas Regionals in Toronto, choosing instead to concentrate on his involvement with club team St. George’s and Cup Match before heading to school abroad in August.Bascome, seen as the likely captain of the team, has opted not to play for the Under 19s in the 50-overs league, which was one of the requirements for squad members as the team prepares for Youth World Cup qualification. Arnold Manders, who is coaching the squad along with his brother Andre and Clevie Wade, admits Bascome’s loss will hurt the team’s batting.

“Oronde is showing no interest, I don’t think he wants to play for the squad,” said Manders this week.

“The board met with him and he’s going to school in August and is not available for the Americas Regional Tournament (tentative dates are August 11-18). He’s going to play for his club, Cup Match and then is leaving to go to school.

“We’re going to miss Oronde, he was our leading run scorer for the last two or three years, but he doesn’t want to be a part of the programme. We’ve been preparing for being without him since January. We have a lot of work to do but we’re pleased with the progress that the team is making.”

Added Manders: “We still have to work a bit on our batting which is probably our weakest point but all the coaches are pleased with the progress they are making, their attitude and efforts in training. They are a fairly close team, they’ve been together for a little while now.”

The captaincy will be rotated between Malachi Jones and Rodney Trott in league games before a final decision is made on who will lead the team.

The squad will also likely be without Jade Foggo and Stephen Bremar, neither of whom have shown much interest, according to Masters who insists it is important to work with players who want to be a part of the squad.

“Jade hasn’t played any cricket for the Under 19s for about two years, he choose football over cricket and we haven’t seen him,” said Manders.

“Stephen Bremar doesn’t know what he wants to do. He’s been training three times out of about 50, so you can work it out from that. The main thing is we have guys who are there because they want to be there.”

Out of a squad of 28, Manders said about 20 show up every session. There is still the possibility of players rejoining the squad or one or two new players added. One player, in particular, has caught the coaches’ attention but age may be a factor.

“Gregory Maybury is one we have been thinking about for the last couple of weeks,” Manders revealed. “But he’s young, only 14, but the Under 15s don’t have any commitments this year so we’re thinking about asking him to come out.

“If there are any youngsters out there who are not on the list who we feel can make a contribution we will call them in.”

Prior to the Regionals the squad, with the exception of Stefan Kelly (abroad in school) will travel to Barbados for the Sir Gary Sobers Tournament from July 7-27.

“That will probably be the nucleus of the squad (for Regionals),” said Manders. “We will probably take 16 and we can only take 14 for the American Regionals so that (Sobers Tournament) will be like a training camp, a major part of who gets selected for the other tournament.”

The Under 19s marked their debut in the Premier Division last weekend with a 103-run victory over Cleveland. However, the coaches were not totally pleased as about half of Cleveland’s 87 runs came in extras, namely wides and no-balls.

“In the end they bowled pretty well considering the factors, they fielded pretty good and scored a decent total (190) in 39 overs,” said Manders.

[bul] Two-day cricket returns this week, but already there has been a casualty in the Premier Division where Bailey’s Bay, because of a shortage of numbers, have opted out of that league. Their opening match with Bailey’s Bay was not played because Bay struggled to field a team and now they have made the decision to pull which leaves the league with just three teams, who will be awarded the points for their matches against Bay.

Champions Southampton Rangers have a bye this weekend as a result while east end rivals St. George’s and St. David’s will play at Wellington Oval.

The two First Division matches at St. John’s and Sea Breeze Oval sees Western Stars playing Devonshire Rec. and Leg Trappers hosting Social Club as Charlie Marshall and Dennis Pilgrim return to Sea Breeze Oval with Social Club.

In the Second Division, Willow Cuts meet PHC at Somerset and Warwick take on Cleveland at Southampton Oval. Somerset Bridge play Flatts in the lone Third Division fixture at White Hill.