分类： sports

As kickoff approaches for Saint Lucia’s opening Concacaf Nations League fixture against Barbados at the Daren Sammy Cricket Ground on Friday night, newly appointed men’s national team head coach Rajesh Latchoo has expressed excitement for the matchup and praise for his squad, particularly the leadership shown by the team’s veteran core.

Speaking with St Lucia Times on Thursday, Latchoo noted that despite only holding three official training sessions with the squad ahead of the game, the intense collaboration between players and coaching staff has made the transition feel far smoother than the short timeline suggests. “It feels like I’ve already been here for a month, not just a few days of training,” he explained. “That connection comes from all the open conversations we’ve had, the questions players have asked, the feedback they’ve shared, and the ideas they’ve brought forward. At the end of the day, players are the ones who own the game on the pitch.”

Under Latchoo’s new framework, senior players are empowered to make in-match decisions, with the coaching staff focusing on aligning the entire squad around a shared strategy rather than dictating every move. The coach emphasized that the veteran experience of long-tenured squad members is the team’s greatest asset, one that should never be underestimated.

Latchoo rejected the idea of forcing a rigid pre-determined playing style, instead stating that his game plan will always center on leveraging the existing strengths of his roster. He argued that the current squad is well-balanced across every position, with special depth in attacking play.

“I’ve been incredibly impressed by the squad’s finishing ability — we have legitimate goalscorers across the front line, and that’s a strength we’re going to play to,” Latchoo said. He added that the defensive line and goalkeeper unit boast strong veteran leadership, the wide positions are filled with athletic, dynamic players, and the midfield and attacking slots mix seasoned experience with promising young talent. “Even our newer young players know exactly what to do when they get a chance in front of goal,” he noted.

The current squad includes the top two marksmen from the Saint Lucia Semi-Professional Football League: Yanic Noel and Garvin Reggie, with Reggie earning his first ever call-up to the senior national side. The roster also features attacking standout Caniggia Elva, who notched a brace against Barbados in the teams’ previous encounter.

Leading the squad out on Friday will be returning captain Terell Thomas, a 30-year-old central defender who most recently plied his trade with England’s Carlisle United. Thomas has given a positive assessment of the new coaching staff’s early work, saying he has been impressed by Latchoo’s approach in his short tenure.

“What stands out immediately is how observant he is, and how clearly he communicates what he sees and how we can improve in different game situations,” Thomas explained. “He’s kept everything very simple, which is exactly what you need when you have such a short window to prepare. If you try to overload players with too much new information and complex philosophies right away, it just doesn’t work.”

Thomas added that Latchoo’s trust in the squad has had a unifying effect: “He told us straight out, ‘Every single one of you here is a good player — you know how to play this game.’ He’s given us the confidence to make the right calls on the pitch, and that simplicity has really helped the group gel quickly.”

A key rule change from FIFA has also reshaped this international match window, expanding it from one week to two weeks to allow four Concacaf Nations League fixtures to be completed within a single break. Thomas welcomed the adjustment, noting that the extra time allows for far more tactical continuity, even if it brings new physical demands.

“Having more time together on the training pitch means we can work through kinks and get our game plan locked in far better than we could in a shorter window,” he said. “That said, four games in 14 days puts a lot of strain on players’ bodies, so recovery is going to be absolutely critical this window. There are both upsides and challenges to the new format.”

Thomas also pointed out that the extended break is particularly beneficial for the new coaching regime, giving Latchoo more time to implement his vision and build rapport with the squad. After Friday’s opener against Barbados and a second home fixture on Monday, the side will travel to Barbados to face Guadeloupe in two further matches next week.

For his part, Latchoo says he is just glad to have the chance to compete at this level in the Caribbean. “This is what football is all about,” he said. “I’m so happy that we get to compete against other teams in the region, push each other, and all get better as a result.”

After steering the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) through more than a decade of unprecedented growth and transformation, Chief Executive Officer Pete Russell has announced he will step down from his post following the conclusion of the 2026 tournament.

Russell has been a core member of the CPL organization since the league was first founded, contributing to every stage of its evolution from a nascent regional competition to a globally recognized cricket franchise. In a transitional arrangement, he will continue to fulfill his CEO duties until a permanent successor is named, and will remain engaged to support the CPL board and executive leadership team through the leadership handover.

Looking back on his tenure, Russell expressed deep pride in how far the league has come, and its far-reaching impact across the Caribbean region. “I am incredibly proud of CPL’s growth and international standing,” he said. “I believe its greatest achievement is in bringing fans back to cricket across the Caribbean and providing a platform for generations of young West Indian players to showcase their talent, express themselves on a global stage and pursue their cricketing dreams.”

Russell emphasized that the CPL has succeeded in rekindling widespread passion for cricket across the region, turning match days into sold-out, high-energy celebrations that have created lasting memories for fans at home and around the globe. He extended gratitude to the full ecosystem of stakeholders that have supported the league, including supporters, players, franchise owners, corporate sponsors, broadcast partners, Caribbean regional governments and the in-house CPL team. “It has been the privilege of a lifetime to be part of this journey,” he added.

Russell’s journey with the CPL began long before his promotion to the top executive role. For the first eight years of the league’s existence, he served as Chief Operating Officer, where he oversaw all day-to-day tournament operations and laid the operational groundwork for sustainable expansion. He stepped into the CEO role in June 2021, and under his leadership, the league has expanded its footprint across key global markets, secured landmark broadcast distribution deals, forged high-value commercial partnerships, and built collaborative, productive relationships with governments across every Caribbean territory.

In recent years, Russell oversaw an ambitious period of diversification for the CPL Group, moving the organization beyond core cricket tournament operations. Under his direction, the league expanded from six to seven franchise teams, launched an in-house entertainment production arm named Live and Louder Productions, rolled out a dedicated standalone streaming platform for global fans, and built out a scaled, diversified events business that extends the group’s impact beyond annual CPL match weeks.

On a bright Friday in Saint Lucia, a week-long specialized spin bowling camp led by former New Zealand international cricketer Paul “Wiz” Wiseman drew to a close, bringing valuable elite-level expertise to emerging spin talents from two key local programs: the Saint Lucia Cricket High Performance Centre (SLCHPC) and the Saint Lucia National Cricket Association’s youth development pipeline.

Wiseman brings a wealth of top-tier experience to this developmental initiative, having built a distinguished 17-year professional playing career. Across 73 international appearances for New Zealand’s Black Caps, including 25 Test matches, he claimed 73 international wickets with his sharp right-arm off-break deliveries. His consistent success at the domestic first-class level further cements his credentials, with 466 wickets taken from 186 first-class outings.

This camp marks the latest targeted investment by SLCHPC and Saint Lucia’s national cricket federation to elevate the skill sets of the island’s next generation of cricketers, with the long-term goal of preparing young athletes to compete at regional-level tournaments. The high performance centre already has a strong foundation for bowling development, employing former Windward Islands specialist spinner Larry Edward in the full-time role of assistant bowling coach.

During his time working with the young bowlers, Wiseman highlighted unique advantages Saint Lucia possesses for nurturing spin talent, pointing to the nature of local playing surfaces that naturally favor spin bowling. “If you look at modern Test cricket, we are seeing increasingly extreme pitch variations, and that includes a growing number of spin-friendly wickets,” Wiseman explained. “That means developing new spin talent here is critical to taking advantage of these local conditions, which makes this work a huge priority. Beyond Test cricket, spin bowling has been a consistently successful weapon in the Caribbean Premier League’s T20 competitions for years, so it is already a hugely important component of competitive cricket across the West Indies.”

This is not Wiseman’s first foray into developmental coaching: he has previously helped cultivate emerging spin bowlers for both New Zealand’s men’s Black Caps and women’s White Ferns national programs. In Saint Lucia, he said he was immediately struck by the depth of raw and refined talent across the group of camp participants. He emphasized that he jumped at the chance to share decades of on-field insight and pass along actionable tips to help these young bowlers sharpen their craft.

“We got the chance to evaluate talent from both inside the High Performance Centre and the broader local cricket community, and the depth of skill here is really impressive,” Wiseman noted. “There is incredible raw talent alongside more developed, refined players, and I thoroughly enjoyed working with every single one of them. My hope is that the insights we shared this week will add real long-term value to their development as players.”

Working in lockstep with assistant coach Edward and SLCHPC head coach John Eugene, Wiseman structured the week around personalized one-on-one coaching sessions, most of which took place in the practice nets at Saint Lucia’s iconic Mindoo Phillip Park. He also worked closely with the local coaching staff to align training with the centre’s long-term development frameworks. To cap off the week, the most senior bowlers who participated in the camp got the chance to test their new skills in a practical exhibition, squaring off against batters from the professional Windward Islands Volcanoes side on Friday.