Tony Becca
THE THREE-WEEK camp to prepare the West Indies team for the triangular one-day tournament in Australia is now in full swing in Barbados and ,according to manager Tony Howard and technical advisor Sir Gary Sobers, things are going well.
Scheduled to have started on Monday, the camp got off to a late start following the impasse between the board and the players association and then the available of flights from the various islands into Barbados. By Thursday, however, all 25 players were present, and based on reports it is shaping up to be a good camp.
According to Howard, apart from physical work, catching and fielding, the first four days were spent doing interviews with the players and looking at team values.
VALUES
"We want the players to set some values for themselves, some principles which we, as a team, will intend to live," Howard said.
"We want to find out from them what are the standards they would like to see the West Indies as a team uphold, and although we have only partially gotten into it, it's really asking the players to do a bit of soul searching to find out what they want to get out of West Indies cricket, how they see themselves and how they would like the public to see them as West Indies cricketers," he said.
"This is not about bat and ball. It is about the complete cricketer, so lots of what we are doing will focus around the rudiments that go into making a complete cricketer."
Although the bat and the ball is important, for those who have been around West Indies cricket and who have lamented the decline in such things as discipline and commitment, for those who understand that performance at the highest level takes more than the ability to bat and bowl, that is indeed a good start.
And those who know Howard, those who have listened to him talking about West Indies cricket and what it will take for the team to be successful can appreciate his satisfaction at what has happened so far.
Apart from Howard and Sobers, the new management team includes four Austra-lians in head coach Bennett King, assistant coach David Moore, coaching manager Darren Holder and physiotherapist Stephen Partridge, and what is interesting is that Sobers, the Great One, is also impressed and particularly so by the methods of King.
"Things are going very well," said Sobers after his first day at the camp. "It is very interesting to see some of the new techniques that are being used and to listen to Bennett talking to the boys. It is similar to what you think about, but it is put in a different way.
"It's really nice to see that someone has come in here and doing this. I don't know what has gone on before because I have never been with the other coaches, but what is going here is something that I am sure the boys have probably never heard about."
The Sobers quotes were reported on the West Indies Board's website, and this one is particularly interesting.
TOO EARLY FOR PRAISE
"I have spoken to him before, I think he looks like he knows what he is doing, and talking to him, his way of thinking actually is a little bit similar to mine. Therefore I think that they have a person here who will do a tremendous job."
With only a few days gone since the start of the camp, it is really too early to sing the praises of King and his team. Based on the reactions of Howard and Sobers, however, so far, so good, and hopefully this team, inclusive of Howard and Sobers, will continue from their good start and build a West Indies team that will be, once gain, one of the best and then the best in the world.
