FOUR of Jamaica’s young cricket stars have been selected to be interviewed for participation in a Sagicor High Performance Centre academy programme, which will begin in May this year.

Andre Creary, Akeem Dewar, Nkrumah Bonner and Horace Miller are expected to leave the island for Barbados tomorrow with hopes of being approved admission into the two-year programme, involving three-month residence at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies each year.

Each territory has been asked by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) to recommend four promising players, preferably between the ages of 19 and 23, so that a final 15 can be enrolled.

The aim of the programme is to develop youngsters in a systematic and structured way, using modern techniques and strategies.

The academy will be directed by Toby Radford, who has performed a similar role at the Middlesex County Cricket Club in England. The 38-year-old Welshman also had brief playing stints with Middlesex and Sussex.

Jamaica’s senior head coach Junior Bennett hailed the programme as a step in the right direction.

“It (the programme) is very important as it is similar to the Shell Academy that we had years ago. The recommendation came from the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) for four players who they think would fit their criteria and these players were chosen. All facets of the game will be looked into, so they will look at honing skills, player fitness and the mental aspect as well,” he said.

The Shell Cricket Academy of St George’s University in Grenada was launched in 2001 and was heralded as the way forward for the region’s cricket that has been in decline since the mid-1990s. Unfortunately, by 2005 the WICB was forced to dispense with it because of lack of funding.

Andre Coley, who coached the West Indies Under-19 team to a third-place finish at the International Cricket Council (ICC) 2010 Youth World Cup, had told the Observer in February that a programme to develop young players was needed in the region.

“I think the key for those players is that they need to be in a setting for two years to further develop and get them playing under pressure to prepare them for international level.

“Going forward… we can get these boys into some kind of programme for the next year or two where they actually play under pressure…,” said Coley back then.

The programme, it is felt, will inculcate a training and preparation psyche among future West Indies players and ultimately, create a cadre of highly-trained potential representatives for the senior team.