With the dust settled on NY Tri-State’s victory in the Sir Garfield Sobers U-19 Tournament, the coach and some of the players have had time to reflect.

The eleven-day tournament divided 18 cricket teams into three groups of six, with 16 teams coming from the West Indies and two from overseas.

Head Coach Linden Fraser with the trophy

They were Australia’s Hills Academy, last year’s winners and defending champions, and the NY Tri-State Team made up of players from across the USA with additional players from Guyana. the home island of their Head Coach Linden Fraser.

The competition took place a mid a feeling of impensing doom around West Indian cricket. The Australians beat them comfortably in a three match series this summer but there is a more daunting cloud on the horizon.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) whcih administers global cricket is set to create a two tier division based on cricketing merit. The West Indies will fall into that second tier. This means the end of home series against the Tier 1 sides which include Australia, England and India.

These are the three visitors who bring touring fans and much needed revenue both to West Indian cricket and to the islands’ economies overall.

In that environment, it cannot have helped that it was the two visiting sides reaching the final but that did not stop the NY Tri State players and coach praising the Barbadian tournament organizers to the full and expresing their gratitude.

There was a general local consensus that the quality and and especially the quantity of visiting teams needs to increase in 2026, so that the best West Indian players gain more experience playing against better foreign players rather than players selected from local schools invited to make up the numbers.

But that observation was far from the lips of Tri-State Head Coach Linden Fraser:

“This was a wonderful tournament and I am overjoyed with our performance of this young team.

“So thank you again to the organizers of the Sir Garfield Sobers Tournament. This torunament is superb. and as long as we’ll be NY Tri-State, we’ll be participating.”

The NY Tri-State side were determined to play in the Final after visiting Kensington Oval on a day trip

As well as the excellent organisation of the tournament, Fraser paid tribute to those behind the scenes in the Tri-State club that made things happen:

“First of all, I’d like to thank our President Lester Hooper, brother of former West Indies and Guyana captain, Carl Hooper, our Director Clifford Hinds, our manager Tracy Glasgow for all the work they have done behind the scenes to make sure we were able to participate in the Sir Garfield Sobers International Schools Tournament.

“Our team started pretty slowly but after every game we have improved and it’s a testament of what after they they said after an (earlier) visit to the Kensington Oval.”

“The players told me: ‘Coach, we have to make it to the final’. And this is what they did.

“It’s a wonderful bunch of young cricketers from around the United States and coming from Guyana too and I must say that they made me feel like I wanted to play cricket all over again but with Basil Butcher, our physio/strength conditioning coach and myself, it was just a sight to see.

“It was just brilliant, and you may be surprised to know that, every game in this tournament; the seven games that we have played , we have chased (batted second) in every game.

“We had to bowl first and chase whatever total was put in front of us. So I have to thank these young players. It was a brilliant performance; (whether) bowling or batting, they were outstanding.

“We are so so happy and excited about everything and you could have seen it in these young kids’ faces, after the final run was scored.

Emmanuel Lewis hits the winning runs in the Final
(enlarge to full screen for best viewing)

Fraser continued:

“It was an all round team performance but we had (Emmanuel) Lewis who batted splendidly. He played an all round different role. He said:

“Coach, you don’t have to worry. I’m going to take this all the way through.’

“The bowlers did a fantastic job too, to restrict the Australian team who won thsi tournament last year. It’s just wonderful.

As our motto goes – ‘Cricket Without Boundaries’.”

The triumph was very much a team effort with different individuals rising to each occasion to win different games.

In Game 4, matters were not going well when Rags Prabhune joined Ajay Prithivaraj with the score on 75-6 against the fancied Lodge Academy.

Tri-State had lost the previous game and the target of 125 seemed attainable until the American side colapsed to 75-6.

They were four wickets away from a second successive loss and their tournament being over. Heads were low.

The two Dallas Indidans proceeded to bat better than anything seen from the side thus far and put on 53 unbeaten runs to win the game and save NY Tri-State’s hopes of qualfication for the semi-finals.

One of the heroes of that day, Prithivaraj ended the tournament as Tri-State’s top batsman, with a batting average of 53.33 and a strike rate of 76.56. He scored 160 runs and lost his wicket just three times.

He summed up his personal journey afterwards:

“Our trip to Barbados was really nice. It wasn’t just the great atmosphere; it was also how our team’s unique culture really came together, making it such a good time.

“And, of course, winning the tournament was a pretty sweet way to cap off all those great memories.

Ajay Prithiviraj and Rags Prabhune’s unbroken partnership of 53 against The Lodge Academy secured victory and turned the tide of the Tri-State side’s tour

The other hero Prabhune will recall this for the rest of his life:

“My experience playing in Barbados was truly unique and like no other.

“I had never been outside of America just for the sole purpose of playing cricket, and visiting a cricket playing nation such as Barbados was amazing.

“The quality of every single ground whether it was a local ground or a stadium such as Kensington Oval itself, the standard was a totally different level.

“Overall I had a great time and learned many valuable lessons from my time overseas.”

Although the Americans batted second and chased down a total in every game, not all thier heroes wielded a bat.

Aarav Murthy not only had a tournament to remember but a moment to remember in the semi-final.

A place in the Final was at stake when the National Sports Council U17 reached 153-6 with 28 balls left. They seemed destined to set a tough total of 180 or more. That would have been by far the toughest total the Tri-Staters had to chase.

Murthy then proceeded to take a hat-trick, the first of his life.

Aarav Murthy takes a hat trick against NSC
(enlarge to full screen for best viewing)

His effort restricted the opposition to 165, a total which the Americans knocked off comfortably, Shiloh Adams top scoring with 53.

Danish Dinesh scored 60 to vanquish Combermere, the highest score by any American batsman in a top of the table clash.

Dave Mohabir took 3-6 in four overs to win the opening game against Grantley Adams while Jayden Dowlin won Man of the Match honours in Game Two with figures of 3-19 off eight overs against the Top Level Academy.

Mohabir took 11 wickets at 12.27 but his economy rate was startling, conceding just 2.6 runs per over, a remarkable number in any form of limted overs cricket. He bowled an incredible 230 dot bals, that is balls which the batsman were unable to score from.

Dowlin took 17 wickets at an average of just 10.41.

If that wasn’t superb enough, he conceded an average of 4.61 runs per over even though he often bowled at the end of the innings where fast runs are sought. That 17 wickets was the top haul of any bowler in the Tournament.

The other star of that day and indeed every other victory was skipper Ekansh Rastogi.

A quiet lad who lead by example rather than by vocal encouragement, his field placings coupled with the ability of his bowlerrs to bowl to that field, saved the side countless runs when bowling. Not only did the batsman have to endure fine shots producing no runs as they were cleanly fielded but this frustration bought wickets at the other end.

A thoughtful rather than aggressive cricketer, Rastogi summed up his experience of the winning tour:

“Our experience participating in the Sir Garfield Sobers U19 Cricket Tournament in Barbados was a special experience.

“The fierce on-field competition was only one part of an exciting fortnight of visits to the beach, tournament ceremonies, and a dream-come-true opportunity to play at the Kensington Oval, “The Mecca.”

“We truly enjoyed bonding as a team and took great pride in representing ourselves, NY Tri-State Youth Development, and American cricket to the best of our abilities.”

Rastogi’s quiet thoughtful leadership was made possible by the ying to his yang, Guyanan wicketkeeper/batsman Shiloh Adams.

Adams was as noisy as they come in geeing up his side whether from behind the stumps while fielding or from the pavilion when his side were batting. It was he who led the support from the clubhouse as Prithivaraj and Prabhune were rescuing the tournament at the beautiful Windward Cricket Ground with that seventh wicket partnership.

With his Guyanaese twang and his use of the colliquialism ‘Mano‘, he raised the level of noise from colleagues and parents to lift the batsman. By the end, it felt very much like a home game for the Americans, mostly thanks to Adams.

He batted in all seven games scoring 156 runs with a strike rate of 82.98 and an average of 22.29. He also took eight stumpings, an incredible number for seven matches.

By the semi-final, no parent woudl even take a bet on him NOT getting at least one dismissal by his own volition.

Looking back, Adams described the experience as ‘incredible’

“Playing in Barbados was an incredible experience. The atmosphere, the competition, and the local culture all made it memorable.

“Our team bonded really well over the two weeks, and we walked away with some great performances and even better memories.”

One of those memories came just before the winning runs. when Lewis completed that 50 at Kensington Oval.

For a team with no stars, in which they all starred, it seems a fitting way to end our coverage of the Sir Garfield Sobers U-19 Tournament 2025.

Emmanuel Lewis brings up his 50 at Kensington Oval
(enlarge to full screen for best viewing)

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