A new era for domestic cricket is nigh with the revamping of the Saint Lucia Cricket High Performance Centre (SLCHPC) in alignment with international standards. This is according to Wayne Auguste, president of the Saint Lucia National Cricket Association, who revealed that transformational technical backing for the SLCHPC will be on the cards soon.
Launched in collaboration with the Government of Saint Lucia in 2023, the SLCHPC has served as a breeding ground for young, talented athletes to hone their skills and develop their game. Auguste noted that this elevation in intensity will benefit both current and future cohorts in the programme, providing a pathway into the professional setup — similar to the one utilised by his son, Ackeem Auguste, who is among Saint Lucia and the West Indies’ brightest cricketing prospects.
“Saint Lucia is on fire in terms of the talent that we have,” he told the crowd at the launch of the National Under-13 tournament. “What we’re going to do next is we’re going to get the programme we have for the high performance centre, aligned to the West Indies programme to ensure that our boys receive the same level of training that Ackeem [Auguste] would have received in the last year, that would have caused his cricket to advance so quickly.”
Auguste went on to call on coaches to prepare themselves for this new wave of changes. He emphasised that they too must be willing to upskill, stating:
“We want to get our programme so the coaches must get ready too, because the programme is going to change. We are going into true high performance.”
Auguste is confident that Saint Lucian cricket is truly on the rise. As the nation continues to be one of the feeder countries for cricket at the West Indies level — and with the potential for cricket athletes to participate in the upcoming Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028 — Cricket Saint Lucia is charting a path it believes will lead to success.
