DHAKA, Bangladesh, CMC - WEST INDIES Under-19 coach Clyde Butts, glowing over his team's efficient Youth World Cup (YWC) semi-final win over England on Tuesday, has saluted the 'know-how' of several players in his squad.
Seven members of the current squad played on the West Indies team that won the Costcutter Under-15 World Cup in England four years ago, and Butts believes their experience then is helping them at the YWC.
"I think they've understood what it was all about. They had the experience and I think they passed that around," Butts told CMC Sport.
Captain Denesh Ramdhin, who was man of the match for his top score of 72 in Tuesday's win over England, is one the seven players here from the triumphant unit at the 2000 World Under-15s.
The others are Xavier Marshall, the team's leading scorer (305 runs), Tishan Maraj, Assad Fudadin, Lendl Simmons, Ravi Rampaul and Lionel Baker, the top bowler for the West Indies Under-19s here with 12 wickets so far.
"Certainly, the way they played (against England), it showed that that (World Under-15 experience) mattered, and if you look at the sort of performance we had, those guys led from the front as well," Butts said.
Butts said he even used the 2000 youth world title triumph - the only recent major tournament success for a West Indies cricket team - as an inspirational tool in his build up for the semi-final.
"In the past five years or so that has been the West Indies' only sort of pride that we have had for some time, and I reminded them about it," Butts said.
West Indies play Pakistan in the day/night final tomorrow morning (Jamaica time) at the Bangabandhu National Stadium.
Pakistan bowled out West Indies for 88 runs in 27.3 overs and won their first round game by 163 runs two weeks ago but Ramdin believes they can reverse that result if they play to their full potential.
"We will have to do more concentration on more batting the guys have to buckle up a bit and we should be able to do the job," Ramdin said.
