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The schedule in the Nortel West Indies youth cricket championships has come in for a strong tongue-lashing from Barbados' manager Darnley Boxill.

The former Barbados wicket-keeper/batsman and a national youth team official for the last three seasons, said it was the most physically demanding schedule he had come across in his involvement with the sport.

The championships, which open in Barbados on Tuesday, feature a three-day competition and, for the first time ever, a limited-overs tournament.

As a result, potential finalists in both versions will play 18 days of cricket over a 26-day period.

``There is a structural deficiency in the programme,'' Boxill told NATIONSPORT.

``How can you ask young men to play so much cricket in such a short period?

``The structure is defeating what we want as development. I know that money is a constraint and time is important, but if you are going to save and you are not developing the cricket, then to my mind, it's counter-productive.

``We want to have a good competition, but at the same time, we've got to be realistic about it.''

There have always been complaints over the schedule when teams were playing five three-day matches in the space of 20 days.

There was usually one rest day between matches with the exception of the break between the third and fourth matches when there were two rest days.

This year, there is a maximum of five three-day matches and three one-day matches, with play starting at 10 a.m. in the former and half-hour earlier in the shorter version of the game.

``How often would these youngsters have been exposed to that? Never,'' Boxill said.

``Any time a player gets an injury, even a niggling injury, you cannot recover.

``It means that you are going to be playing at 50 to 60 per cent of your capabilities.''

It was the primary reason, he said, why outstanding performances at this level were few and far between.

``Sometimes you get a guy having a good series like a (Shirley) Clarke or a (Ramnaresh) Sarwan, but you don't get six or seven people doing it,'' Boxill said.

``Most people should be able to do that, but the injuries prevent them.''

Boxill, however, admitted that most of the players at this level were not fully fit. He estimated that 95 per cent of the players were only about 75 per cent fit.

``The odd one may be about 80 to 90 per cent fit, but the majority of them are not fit,'' he said.

``To get them to that sort of peak fitness, it means working them real hard. If you work them hard before the competition, they will be burnt out by the time of the competition.