Bridgetown, Barbados – The boys at the Sagicor High Performance Centre are making strides forward. This is the view of Head Coach Graeme West, who says he remains impressed with the level of preparation and commitment of the 16 players in the West Indies Cricket Board’s development programme.
"The players have shown a lot of progression in fielding and bowling. The work done with Ottis Gibson when he was here has given the bowlers a better understanding of what they have do to reach the next level. The work done by Andre Coley in the fielding has led to a significant improvement. The percentage of chances we have taken has been very high," West said.
He outlined that the batting is the one area which requires more focus, but he has faith that the work being put in behind the scenes will bear fruit. West started work with the squad in May of this year and said at that stage the players demonstrated a willingness to learn. He was with the team on their tour of Bangladesh in September when they faced some challenges, but responded well to the foreign conditions.
"The bowlers and the fielders performed admirably in Bangladesh, but it was our inability to consistently score big that has been a bit of a challenge. It is something that the batsmen have been working on and we have seen signs of improvement along the way," West added.
"There have been a lot of good performances with the bat, but not enough good performances in one innings to give us match-winning scores and put the opposition under pressure. Andre Fletcher, Johnson Charles and Kyle Hope have all made big scores and several others have showed their potential and their skill without going on to get the big scores that we are looking for, the kind of performances that would get them a bit more recognition and a bit more notice."
The Sagicor HPC players will have matches on Friday (50 overs) and Sunday (two T20s) before they return to their home bases next week. Most will join the national squads in preparation for the Caribbean T20. Top order batsmen Fletcher, who played in the ICC World T20 in 2009 and 2010, and Charles, who was a member of the West Indies world champion team in Sri Lanka last month, have been named in the Windward Islands squad for the Caribbean T20 to be played in Trinidad and St Lucia from January 6 to 20.
"The batsmen have shown that they can do it and we know that they can do it. What they need to do now is go into domestic cricket and bat sessions, bat for long periods and make big scores and start to demonstrate the potential that I see in them every day, but which we have not seen enough of in competition," West added.
"The range of things that we have done during the programme has given the players a range of experiences that they would not have had prior to coming into the programme. They have done a lot of work with the IT team, which they found to be of significant benefit. They have benefitted from the information on lifestyle, nutrition, anti-corruption and anti-doping, which are part and parcel of any international cricket programme at the moment. The players have bonded really well as a group and formed a very good team. They support each other and have pulled together."
UPCOMING MATCHES
Friday, November 23 – 50 overs
Sagicor HPC1 vs Sagicor HPC2 – 10 am
Sunday, November 25 – Twenty20
Sagicor HPC1 vs Sagicor HPC2 – 1 pm
Sunday, November 25 – Twenty 20
Sagicor HPC 1 vs Sagicor HPC 2 – 6 pm