Don’t wait for international matches: Henry believes cricketers could benefit from utilizing top tier venues
By Neto Baptiste Former national cricketer and captain of the New Winthorpes Lions cricket team Nino Henry is calling on authorities to take more local matches to the country’s top venues following last Saturday’s Super 40 final at the historic Antigua Recreation Ground (ARG). Henry, a former Combined Campuses and Colleges player, believes it will […]
Black News 
By Neto Baptiste
Former national cricketer and captain of the New Winthorpes Lions cricket team Nino Henry is calling on authorities to take more local matches to the country’s top venues following last Saturday’s Super 40 final at the historic Antigua Recreation Ground (ARG).
Henry, a former Combined Campuses and Colleges player, believes it will help to further develop and prepare the country’s young players for cricket at another level.
“Antigua Recreation Ground, because you need cricket at these venues, you don’t want to wait until the international matches show up to play at these venues, but hey, that’s beyond you and I, so I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what the administration does,” he said.
The Super 40 final was moved to the ARG one week after it was called off at the Jennings playing field due to wet conditions.
Henry said that playing at the venue added a special element to the game, especially for the younger players.
“It’s been a while since we played down there as a team so it was very good because our home fans were there. People just come out to watch cricket and you could see all the cars parked in the parking lot and everything so it was a good atmosphere. Everybody was very excited to play there. We know there’s no chasing on that ground so we knew that it would have been a big total. Everybody was looking forward to it and as I said, you want the younger guys to be playing in these venues; you just don’t want to wait until a Leeward Islands tournament or something for them to be playing at the stadium or whatever for the first time. It should be their home, they should be very comfortable there,” the player said.
New Winthorpes won Saturday’s final by 113 runs to successfully defend the title they first won in 2025.
