A rigorous preparation programme is planned over the next three weeks for the weakened, inexperienced West Indies team to the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy in South Africa.
With the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) choosing not to pick a host of players who, on the advice of the West Indies Players Association (WIPA), declared themselves unavailable for the recent home series against Bangladesh and the subsequent, unexplained dismissal of head coach John Dyson, interim coach David Williams and his staff have an urgent and difficult task getting the 15 players ready.
The build up starts on Sunday at Kensington Oval in Barbados and goes to the following Friday before the team leaves for South Africa and more intense groundwork over 12 days to the start of the September 22-October 5 event at the North West Academy in Potchefstroom, said to be the best sporting facility in the country.
Warm-up matches, against South Africa and New Zealand, have been planned by the ICC leading to the West Indies’ first match in the Trophy proper, a day-night affair against Pakistan at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg.
Their other matches in their qualifying group are on September 26 against defending champions, Australia, who beat them in the final in 2006 in Mumbai, and on September 30 against India, day-night, both also at Wanderers.
The two top teams from the two groups advance to the semi-finals.
The 50-overs-an innings tournament comprises seven other teams. All are ranked on the ICC’s ODI table above even the full strength West Indies in spite of their record of winning the championship in England in 2004, with victory over England in the final, and finishing runners-up in 2006, losing to Australia in the final in Mumbai.
Only four members of the West Indies squad have previously played in South Africa – 37-year-old captain Floyd Reifer on the 1998-99 tour, Daren Powell, Darren Sammy and Devon Smith on the last tour in 2007-08. Seven others are on their first senior overseas tours.
Tony Howard, the WICB’s chief cricket operations officer, was at Kensington yesterday ensuring that all was ready for the start of the Barbados leg of the exercise.
“We want to ensure that, as much as possible, every aspect of the game is covered – technique, physical fitness, the psychological side, the team environment,” he said.
A programme on mental preparedness was being prepared for use at the camp by Dr. June Caddle, lecturer in sports management at the Barbados Community College and part-time lecturer at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies, Howard added.
He said that plans to have star players from the past add their knowledge and experience to the exercise would be coordinated by Joel Garner, president of the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) and himself an outstanding player from the glory days of the 1980s when the West Indies did not lose a single Test series,
These would be informal sessions with the team, rather than any coaching as such, he explained.
The West Indies squad: Floyd Reifer (captain), Darren Sammy (vice-captain), David Bernard, Tino Best, Royston Crandon, Travis Dowlin, Andre Fletcher, Nikita Miller, Daren Powell, Keiron Powell, Kemar Roach, Devon Smith, Gavin Tonge, Chadwick Walton. Manager: Lance Gibbs. Coach: David Williams.
