BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – West Indies head coach Ottis Gibson says the West Indies Cricket Board will spare no effort in developing a new generation of fast bowlers. Pointing to the region’s proud history of the art, Gibson said a strategic approach was being geared towards finding and crafting young pacemen to continue the long heralded tradition.
The top Windies team official was speaking during the ongoing fast bowling coaches workshop at the High Performance Centre at the UWI Cave Hill Campus here.
“The initiative is two-fold. In the West Indies we have a great history of amazing fast bowlers. Young men grew up wanting to be a (Wes) Hall or a (Charlie) Griffith, a (Malcolm) Marshall or a (Joel) Garner, a (Courtney) Walsh or an (Curtly) Ambrose,” said Gibson, a former fast bowler.
“We were blessed with amazing fast bowlers. Nowadays the cupboard doesn’t appear as full and we have to start to look at ways of producing great pacers. In the glory days of West Indies cricket our fast bowlers won us many matches and I believe good fast bowlers will still win you matches.
“We also need to educate our hard-working coaches about the various aspects of fast bowling and also provide them with details and offer the right knowledge base to help our young fast bowlers develop. He added: “The fact that the numbers of coaches who came here for the workshop is quite high, and we had a lot more who wanted to participate, suggest that people across the Caribbean see the importance of such initiatives.
“We have a number of coaches here who have played at the international and regional levels and we aim to equip them with the tools to assist the young fast bowlers across the Caribbean and help them to fix some of the common problems young fast bowlers have.”
For the workshop, Gibson has been joined by biomechanist Dr. Paul Hurrion, with HPC bowling coach and West Indies Under-19 head coach Roddy Estwick and WICB physiotherapist CJ Clark playing key roles.
The WICB is funding the full participation of two coaches from each territorial board, along with the Combined Campuses and Colleges.
