CHENNAI, (Reuters) – Left-arm spinner Ray Price and former captain Tatenda Taibu have taken over the role of mentors in an inexperienced Zimbabwe squad preparing to take part in the World Cup.
“I really enjoy working with the young guys,” Price told reporters yesterday. “I’m 34 now, (all-rounder) Greg Lamb is nearly 30 and the rest are pretty young. So I’m bit like a grandfather.”
Price said he enjoyed mentoring fellow-spinners Graeme Cremer and Craig Ervine.
“I enjoy it. Spinners in general talk a lot anyway. I’m just trying to teach guys it’s just a game,” he said.
“There might be a lot of people making noise and things like that but at the end of the day, it’s like the same thing like your kid in the park. You also got to enjoy yourself.
“(I’m) just trying to teach the young guys if they practise enough, it helps their variations in the middle and helps them work out batsmen.”
Wicketkeeper Taibu, 27, said he also offered advice to the younger players and to captain Elton Chigumbura.
“When I speak in the change room, I say ‘guys, look after this old man’,” Taibu said. “Having been the captain before, (I try to) help Elton as much as possible.
“I try to give Elton different angles…on bowling changes, options of stopping runs and getting wickets, all for Elton to be able to concentrate on his bowling and batting.
“If we can take away that load off his shoulder, he’ll be able to concentrate on his game and we want him to do that and win us games with the ball and bat.”
Zimbabwe begin their World Cup group B campaign against Australia in Ahmedabad on Feb 21.
