(Trinidad Guardian) Former West Indies batting coach Toby Radford says that the reason Jamaican Jermaine Blackwood, a right-hand player could have scored his valuable 95 to take West Indies to victory over England, had all to do with him controlling his emotions.
Blackwood, 28, scored 95 to help the West Indies chase down 200 runs for victory in the opening Raise Your Bat Test match at the Rose Bowl in Southampton England on Sunday.
With the West Indies innings in early tatters at 35/3 and opener John Campbell back in the hut injured, Blackwood, who made his Test debut against New Zealand in 2014, took centre stage to play an innings out of character and take the West Indies to their fourth Test win in their last seven Test matches against England.
The well respected Radford told Guardian Media Sports on Monday: “I have been doing some stuff with him on the ‘Batting Booth’ so I have been in touch.” The Batting Booth is an online coaching service that was set up by Radford during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic to assist cricketers. Players from around the world have benefitted from his expertise during the lockdown.
He continued: “The issue with Jermaine is that he gets anxious and when this happens, he gets ultra-aggressive and looks to hit himself out of trouble. We have spoken about this before and he understands that he has to keep his emotions under control to give off his best.
“When the West Indies lost those three early wickets I was worried but it worked well for Blackwood. It allowed him to control his emotions and this allowed him to play well. I always tell him that he has all the talent with needs to control his emotions while batting.”
Radford, 48, who set up the Sagicor West Indies High Performance Centre back in 2010 in Barbados and he says that this is critically needed at the moment. The HPC was done away with three years ago.
According to Radford: “Everyone major cricketing nation has one and we need to get it going again in the Caribbean. Back in 2010 when we set up it was a trying time. We didn’t have a building, we didn’t even have a space for an office. However, what we had was a strong programme for the athletes. The programme was intense and brought results. Five players on the West Indies team at the moment were at the HPC.” Skipper Jason Holder, fast bowler Shannon Gabriel, batsmen Shamarh Brooks and Nkrumar Bonner, as well as wicketkeeper Shane Dowrich was admitted to the first class.
Radford, a native of the United Kingdom, was brought in from his duties at Middlesex County Cricket Club to work at the HPC.
He spent two years there before going back to England. However, he was called back by former coach Otis Gibson who wanted him to work with the team. He stayed until 2016 before going back to work for Glamorgan. Such was his impressive reputation he was called again by Cricket West Indies to be batting coach and last year he was removed.
Radford closed by saying that he expects great things from this West Indies team. “West Indies have the best talent in the world, natural athletes. However, once we can get the HPC going again we will polish them faster and they will achieve great things.”
