 So, we're continuing with Cricket on the Sports Fact Zone. Westonis dominated the second half of their three-day warm-up encounter against a Cricket Australia 11 in Adelaide to lead by 214 runs with one day to play. Passing a second time, the Windys ended on 137 for three with Joshua De Silva on 55 and Kevin Hodge, who scored a half-century in the first innings on 44. Earlier in the day, the West Indians dismissed Cricket Australia 11 for 174 on the back of a terrific post-launch period where they grabbed six for 22. There were two wickets each for Kemal Rhotel, Zari Joseph and Shamar Joseph. Waila Kim Jordan, Justin Graves, Kudakesh Moji and Kevin Sinclair claimed a wicket each. While the man who captured most attention though was the 24-year-old Shamar Joseph with his spell of 2 for 28 in eight overs, the guy needs bold with ferocious space and in one headline of the Cricket Australia website, he's described as the quick from nowhere who has revived memories of Windy's greats. Joseph spoke after the day's play. Alright, so who is Shamar Joseph and of course how did he garner so much attention of the regional cricketing body? So let's get some answers now from the guy on a cricket board president, Visundi Asingh who joins us this afternoon via Zoom. Good afternoon, how are you? Yeah, good afternoon to you and your viewers also. I'm fine. Alright, so let's talk about the man of the moment, Shamar Joseph. Talk to me about one, how he got involved in crickets, of course, how the guy on a cricket board was able to spot his talent and he's been doing great things, of course, on his debut. Alright, so let me start by saying Shamar is only 24 years old and he was born in a place named Barakara in Burbis. This is two hours from New Amsterdam, so let me tell you where is New Amsterdam, it's about all from Georgetown. So all from Georgetown and then two hours from New Amsterdam and this is the Barakara and you go there by a boat, you can't go driving there. He played not too much, but maybe about a year or so for Tugbaard clubs. The Tugbaard Park cricket club is the same club where Romare Shepard and Niall Smith play as far. So he was just somebody coming out playing a one or two matches there and then he never played for Burbis or anything for guy and either you would level or anything, just playing cricket because he loved it. He was a security guard then. He left the security service in 2022 and moved to Georgetown hoping that someone will see him and identify his talent. And so we used to be training in Georgetown at the Georgetown cricket club, Romare border and he would come around and ask to join in that session with the contracted players. And we also have what you call emergent players, there are 15 contracted players and the GCB put together another 13 who we believe can challenge the other 15 to get their contract. So he came in and joined just like that. So if you can get an opportunity to bowl, so he started just like that, playing with the emergent players. So Romare Sarwan, who is our chairman of SELECTO, apparently he was looking at this guy and said, you know, this is something we got to deal with now. So we brought him in as an emergent player in 2022, well the ending part of 2022. So we brought him also in the Interconti, well let me explain what Interconti, Interconti is three countries competing for supremacy and what we do, we add a next team to that three teams because there are a lot of players who get left off from their countries and they could possibly make a guy on a team. And so what we do, we form another team and call it SELECTO 11. So Shamar played for SELECTO 11 and the selection panel decided that he's good enough to make a guy on a side. However, on the trip going up to the West Indies tournament after he made the 4-day, the Super 50, we had a little problem getting a spot for him. However, the GCB invested and we got the permission from the guy on the cricket board so that he could tour with the team, he could practice with the team and so on. He can't play. After that we had an injury, it all runs forbidden and he joined the squad. So from that, the rest is no history, you know where he is. Right and when you saw him play, what was special about this player in your view? When you look at Shamar Joseph, right, you would believe that he come to the cricket and assistant. He was everything clean, neat, good ball in action, strong, fit, always ready to train and we have a rigorous training program and this was kind of surprising with fitness level. He was in the top three, you know and so we also, you know by now the territorial boards have a strength and conditioning coach, we are now receiving the services of state-of-the-art gym and Shamar goes there almost at every opportunity to ensure that he is fit. I see a huge future of Shamar, I mean Guyana and I believe we are proud of him. The same thing when he practiced with the Amazon Warriors, it's just a matter of time when he made the team. President, how excited are Guyana's cricket fans though about Shamar because Guyana doesn't have a tradition of producing outstanding fast bowlers. There are other Caribbean countries that can boast producing fast bowlers more than the Guyanese can. I know Colin Croft would probably jump up and say something to me now but generally speaking Guyana produces outstanding spinners and batters. How excited are the Guyana cricket fans about the prospects of this fiery pacer? Very very much, I mean Shamar is special, I mean arriving from just one and a half year never played you cricket and just burst out on the scene like that, I mean it's like an amazing thing that actually happened to Guyana cricket and I'm sure all our cricket fans are proud of Shamar Joseph. And talk to us about the trajectory because at the moment there are a lot of Western is cricket fans who are disappointed that the image of West Indies fast bowling has tempered over the decades. Of course coming from the 70s and 80s when there were fearsome West Indies fast bowlers. Do you see Shamar as the kind of bowler that can rekindle some of that fire in West Indies fast bowling? It's just a matter of time, you could say it's just a matter of time. I once gave him the opportunity, I don't think anyone could stop him. See the key thing is that Shamar keeps fit, he's right, he's very disciplined and obedient. For example we have an open door policy at GCB and every time Shamar gets the opportunity he will give us a call and check in to see what he's doing wrong or what he can do right or how he could improve and so on. I don't see anyone stopping him. Yeah he is clearly a tremendous talent and I notice performances for the West Indies A team on the South Africa tour as well. I was watching an interview with him today and he was saying that a few of the youngsters in Australia came up to him with pictures from his performances in South Africa and he was saying I don't know how they got those pictures but clearly they are fans of myself and that was quite interesting because I think that says a lot about the quality that he has shown in the short time that he's been on that level but also the fact is this young man has only played five first class matches and I'm sure Mr. President there must have been some dissenting voices in Guyana about why he's been elevated to a number of these positions with very very limited first class experience. If there is any maybe very very little. Shamar Joseph is a great find and you enjoy watching him play cricket and he's a guy if he makes mistakes you try to find out why and the way he's disciplined the way he carries himself I am sure that he's going to make a lot of friends in the world. Yeah for sure he is a tremendous talent the West Indies to play Australia in the first step starting on Tuesday which by the way will be live on Sportsmax and the expectation now is that he will make his test debut and of course the partner Alzar Joseph and Kimar Roach. I want to get from you Mr. President because on one end on the rise of Guyana's cricket we're talking about Shamar Joseph a number of other Guyana's players in the various West Indies setups and at the same time one of the most talented Guyana's players Shimran Hetmire know on the outside looking in. I want to get how disappointed you are as president that someone with the quality of a Shimran Hetmire is not quite living up to that in West Indies colors. Look Shimran is quite young and I think there's a lot of room for elevation again. Every player at some point in their game they would have a bad patch and I do hope that this is the case so we're not ruling out anything from Shimran and I think that there's only a matter of time once you get this concentration and all the dots line up in the right order I'm sure he'll be back. Shimran is a real classy player and there's just a matter of time. Yeah of course yes he is 27 years old so you are right there is very much time I know that you said earlier that you have an open door policy at the GCB is either type of player that would reach out to you or that you could reach out to and have conversations with him to see what's going on and if there is any way the GCB can help him get back to a level that I think all Caribbean cricket lovers would love to see. We actually do actually one time the entire board met with Shimran and so when we have these meetings we allow the players to do much of the talking so you hear clearly what's going on on the outside and that's why I'm telling you from an informed position I think it's just a matter of time. Shimran has his heart in the right place and he likes playing cricket he wants to play for his country he loves West Indies cricket and so I as I'm saying it's just a matter of time and every player I see why this spot like this on Shimran because the expectation is extremely high and so that's why people might feel a bit disappointed but he's just a normal human being like all of us and he's entitled to mistakes so I guess it's just a matter of time before Shimran is back at the top there. Yeah Miss Undil Singh it's a pleasure speaking with you thanks for giving us a little bit more information on Shamar Joseph who has left tongues wagging down under with the first test approaching between West Indies and Australia thanks very much for chatting with us and we'll chat again soon I'm sure. Thank you it's a pleasure for having me. Thank you very much. Lance Mariah this warm-up encounter between the West Indies and the Cricket Australia 11 West Indies leading by 214 runs I quickly want to get your opinion it's set to be 35 degrees Celsius on the third and final day so extremely hot if you are in the position of Andre Coley who is the head coach would you be looking to push for a victory would you be looking to get your bowlers back out there for a second opportunity or would you be saying to the team let's just bat as long as possible and call it an early day ahead of the first test. Well there are a couple of things that we've got to look at here and one of the pluses for this squad for me is a lot has been made of the fact that they're inexperienced and there are seven on-capped players in the squad but the plus side of having so many on-capped players is that the Aussies know very little about them and I say that to say this that they are now playing in the warm-up match there was a time when teams would actually hide some of these players in a tour match because they are going to play them in the test match and they don't want the opposition to work them out too much so I don't know if that would be part of the consideration for Andre Coley exactly how he enters the final days play because the Aussies would have seen some players that they know very little of and would be making their notes based on what they're seeing here so I think those those factors may influence what the West Indies decides to do on on the final day but as I said at the start no one is disputing that Australia will be whose huge favorites to win this series because they are the best in the world the West Indies are ranked 8 in the world and this is not even the strongest West Indies team on paper so the odds don't favor them here but I still think there are times when you have some on-capped players who have the stomach for the occasion they may not have the experience and all of the technique to survive but if the temperament is right and they've got the stomach for the for the battle they could you know show themselves to be a lot more competitive than than many people think so I'm awaiting to see how the series develops but this has been an important fixture for them and I think they would come out of this regardless of what happens on the final day with with some level of confidence even though they would know that the Australian 11 is gonna be completely different and stronger than this cricket Australia squad yeah I think this practice match Ricardo and Lance was very very important for these on-capped players to get their feet wet for them to realize you know what type of opposition they will be against and I'm pretty sure because what usually happens with young players getting opportunities like this because I belong to a home so where I remember when Karishma got her first opportunity what they tend to do is because they're young you know they're bright-eyed they're getting this opportunity against players is that they only dreamt about playing against and Shamar said that about Kimar Roach in his interview he said you know he always admired watching Kimar Roach and to have the opportunity is such an honor to play alongside him so I think these youngsters are going to do their research they're gonna come out you know all guns blazing and I think their confidence is going to be right where we want it to be now the execution part is something that we'll have to wait to see but for me getting their feet wet in this practice match was very very important and I have to say the on-capped players they've impressed me I've said that already because to be playing on your first day it's easy to make excuses it's easy to get away with errors because we'll say they're new you know give them another opportunity but they have gotten to this setup team and they have already you know put their name out Shamar Joseph is the one we're talking about and it's his first game yeah a couple of things one to the point that Mariah ended on and Lance you made the point as well we have seen in the past where we've seen West Indies teams selected on the harsh situations previously because senior players went on strike remember 2005 when Dinesh Ramdin came to the four on that Sri Lanka tour was because a number of the senior players came on strike Kimar Roach the most successful West Indies fast bowler of the last 15 years he came into the setup because the senior players went on strike for that Bangladesh tour in 2009 2021 Karl Mears in that Bangladesh tour in Krum Abana got an opportunity in that tour as well he averages 38 in test cricket so we've seen from time to time those shining lights and yeah 2021 because of COVID-19 yeah and a few of the players deciding not to go so we've seen shining lights in the past in situations like that where quote unquote on the strength West Indies teams have been selected I don't doubt that we will see a similar situation maybe it will be Shamar Holder maybe it will be Kevin Sinclair Shamar Joseph apologies maybe it will be Kevin Sinclair maybe it will be somebody else so yes there is always that possibility and I I don't doubt that someone will come to the party last year Taysh Narayan Chandu Paul on his debut tour of Australia performed creditably took on the Australian fast bowlers in his first test match with a half century and a 45 he returns this time around hopefully he'll be able to perform even better even though he hasn't shown in the warm-up matches to Mariah's point though and I want to caution because I think this is so critical this is a pretty average cricket Australia 11 average age 23 years old there's only one player I think we have the batting 11 there's only one player in this cricket Australia 11 who has any sort of test experience and that's the captain Peter Hanscom I think we're going to get that squad shortly with 20 test matches outside of that no test experience average age 23 years old as I pointed out here you have it you have hands come with 166 first-class matches Doran has 66 first-class matches and then look at the others 28, 19, 5, 9, 3, 2, 4 so tremendous inexperience it is a youthful side as well and so I don't want us to get too carried away with the performance of the West Indies against these players because I don't think that the quality is great and I think there are many regional teams that you could put together that would run this cricket Australia team to the wire if not beat them in three and four day games so I think we have to be really cautious in how we assess the performances against this lineup and I find that especially the bowling lineup is especially inexperienced and that the quality that our batsmen will face against Australia is going to be drastically different Lance and Mariah. I get what you're saying but for me it's like you just have to give the players the confidence right now against the opposition that they are put to play against so for me they could have gone against the same young team and of course flopped Ricardo it could have been serious trouble that's the point I'm making so they have this opposition to face they went with no experience at all they were able to put some runs on the board and don't get me wrong the batting has been poor for the West Indies a lot of single digits a lot of the players that I expect to step up not stepping up so I get what you're saying but for me you know there are a few bright lights I don't expect it to be the same when they go up against the Australia team the big team but of course as it stands today I'm going to say I'm still proud of what I saw the effort against the Australia 11. I just want to say quickly that this West Indies team even if you take out the likes of a Craig Brathwaite and Akimah Roach probably has more experience more first-class experience than this cricket Australia 11 and that's what that's the point I really want to make with the quality of this cricket at the risk of playing devil's advocate though no you can Australia's cricket is pretty deep and although these players are young and inexperienced they'll be good Australian cricketers as long as there are solid players in their Sheffield Shield domestic they can play cricket so I think there is some quality there even though they're inexperienced and young but I accept that the Australian test team that the West Indies will face next Tuesday is probably 10 times better than this team and I guess maybe that's the point you're trying to make. Well some would say the lack of quality was shown when West Indies took 6 for 22 after lunch on day two and the cricket Australia 11 ended bowled out for 174. Are we out of time for this segment? Yeah we've been out of time. Yeah we're sending lands at the track.