By Clifton Ross
WEST Indies Under-19 spinner, Ashmead Nedd, said he’s passing the time watching tapes while working out indoors as he patiently awaits the return of cricket, whenever Covid-19 allows the world to return to near normalcy.
The Guyanese spin ace, in an exclusive interview with Chronicle Sports, touched on a number of topics surrounding the recent state of lockdown due to the covid-19 pandemic, as well as post-pandemic plans for athletes.
Sportsmen have been turning their abodes into places of training and practice since the global lockdown came into effect almost two months now.
Nedd, enjoyed a phenomenal 2020 with the West Indies U-19 team in the World Cup, ending with 11 wickets as their leading wicket taker. Prior to that, he made his debut for the strung- together West Indies Emerging Players (WIEP) who shocked the region by winning their maiden Super50 title.
Now, with time home due to the quarantine and lockdown, the 19 year-old said he has been pushing in some hard work while enjoying his down time at home.
“Since this lockdown started, it just gave me some time to do extra fitness work even though there’s no gym around and so on. There’s some work you can do to keep your body fit, although I haven’t gotten the chance to do much in my skills such as bowling/batting and fielding”, said the Windies youth spinner.
Although a sportsman’s career revolves around physical fitness coupled with the ongoing process of sharpening one’s skill sets, the left-arm spinner said it was equally important to have adequate rest and, as such, is cherishing this rare, prolonged time home.
“Time off is pretty good, it gives you time to look back on your performances and watch video clips of yourself and see where you went wrong. It also gives you some time, if you do have the opportunity to work on correcting those errors”, Nedd pointed out.
Looking ahead, possibly to a newer era of sports due to the virus, which continues to spread globally, Nedd added that the future for athletes could be a bit different from what it was before, adding that being away from cricket is tough.
“It’s difficult throughout the world with the covid-19 pandemic. As a sports person knowing you’re away from something you love doing, I think of it also as a kind of set back”, He ended.
