Wayne Lewis, the chairman of the Jamaica Under-19 selection panel, says he is expecting a strong show from the hosts in this year’s West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Under-19 tournament.

Jamaica open their account versus defending champions Guyana at Manchester High School on Wednesday before facing Windward Islands on Thursday at Jamalco in Clarendon.

“We’re very excited about the squad because we have a good balance and some accomplished players. It is going to take all-round team performances and we are very confident we have what it takes. We are good enough to win it and we expect to win it,” Lewis confidently told the Jamaica Observer yesterday.

The team, which is captained by Michael Frew and coached by former West Indies opener Robert Samuels, has been in camp in Manchester since last week.

“We have a very good fast bowling unit which includes Miguel Smith, who was impressive in trial matches, and also a good spin department. We have the captain who bowls off-spin and is a clean-hitting lower order batsman, we have batsmen Abhijai Mansingh, Brad Barnes, and runs are expected from Ramone Francis,” said Lewis, the former Jamaica batsman.

He said he is “disappointed that opener Ricardo McIntosh is left out due to injury”. All-rounder Ryan Burnett, who was a part of the reserves, is in for the highly rated McIntosh, who injured his finger while in Tobago with the National Under-17s recently.

The Under-17s finished third in that WICB tournament.

Meanwhile, the National Under-15 squad, feted by the Jamaica Cricket Association and players’ parents at a Colours Ceremony on Saturday, is set to depart today for the Regional Under-15 cricket tournament in Guyana.

— Sanjay Myers