… camaderie amongst squad at a high
“I THINK they have progressed well. Everyone understands their role and what it means to be fit and they have been working together and encouraging each other and that in itself is a tremendous improvement from when we started working with them to now.”

Those were the words of Police Sports Club (PSC) athletics coach and trainer of the senior national cricket squad, Linden Wilson, who took time out from the squad’s fitness session at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH) yesterday to answer a few questions.

“The tournament is a long one, even though it is a shorter version from last year, but there is a lot of travelling in between games and judging from their output here today, it tells us that they went home over the weekend and did some work and that is another heartening sight for us.

“With them doing such, the percentage has improved from where it was last week. But having said such, I am still surprised at the amount of work we had to do with them. These guys are national players and they need to do more homework by themselves, hence making it easier for us as coaches” Wilson said.

There was laughter amidst the strenuous aerobics exercises they were put under by Wilson and the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) cricket Development Officer (CDO) Reon King, which further highlighted Wilson’s comments on the camaraderie amongst the squad.

“The feedback we received from the players tells us that we are doing something worthwhile and justifiable to them. Their work ethics is good while the commitment can be seen and that has encouraged us as coaches to work with them,” added GCB’s High Performance Manager (HPM) Robin Singh.

“Our main problem is fitness and we have identified same even at the West Indies level and that can lead to injury among other things, including a lack of concentration when batting, as tiredness steps in quickly.

Hence our main aim with the fitness assessment is to ensure they go out there a fit bunch of players and, judging from what we have seen during the course of last week, there have been vast signs of improvements.”

When asked about the proposed one-on-one situation with the players, Singh said that went well so far, with a few of them being given various drills to strengthen their weaknesses.

“I have been using the footage gained from the preparatory camp for the recently held West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) regional limited overs competition and the response has been great. Commencing today, each player will be working on his weaknesses, with the various drills they have been assigned to do to help them strengthen same.

The national selectors compiled a 21-man squad which includes the four players who are representing the West Indies in Australia and for the first time yesterday, all 17 players, along with West Indies Under-19 selectee Trevon Griffith, were at the CASH undergoing the various fitness drills.

The beep test had to be halted due to a faulty compact disc, but King and company already had their schedule arranged and despite not being able to complete the beep test, the players warmed to the other fitness drills that were thrown at them by those in authority.

They will be having their usual early morning aerobics and calisthenics at the refurbished Transport Sports Club pavilion this morning from 07:00 h, after which it’s on to the Guyana National Stadium, Providence, for some technical work with the bowling machine commencing at 10:00 h