Sarwan roped in to mentor Windies batsmen

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Ramnaresh Sarwan, the former West Indies batsman, has accepted the invitation from the board to mentor the Caribbean side’s batsmen ahead of the tri-nation series in Ireland and the World Cup. However, it isn’t yet clear as to whether he would travel with the West Indies side for the World Cup.

The 38-year-old, who played 87 Tests, 18 T20Is and 181 ODIs in a career spanning 13 years, will look to help the batsmen improve their games for the rest of the week. Incidentally, the former middle order batsman worked with both Darren Bravo and Shai Hope, the two mainstays of the line-up, for long hours at the nets on the second day of the training camp at the Cave Hill campus of the University of the West Indies.

“I have come here to act as kind of a mentor to the players and try my best to assist them in any technical ways and with any shortcomings where I think they can improve, and to offer as much help to the head coach, Floyd Reifer, and his coaching staff,” Sarwan said.

“I am very excited to be here. When I received the call from Jimmy (Adams), I was very overwhelmed at being asked to assist West Indies cricket again. I am really grateful for the opportunity and I am looking forward to sharing my knowledge with the players, even though it will just be a few days, and hoping it will help them in some way or other,” he added.

Sarwan observed that he would focus on helping the batsmen to rotate the strike in order to keep the scorecard ticking over. “I know our batsmen have struggled in the past with rotating the strike, so I am trying to see how best we can get them to improve in this area. It’s not an overnight fix, but it’s important to share ideas with them, so that they have something to build on.”

Floyd Reifer, who was recently named as the interim coach, hoped that the batsmen would gain an “understanding of how to finish games” after spending time with Sarwan. “It was very important to have him here,” Reifer stated. “Sarwan was a player who was outstanding for West Indies. A very good batsman. A very good ‘finisher’ in limited-overs matches. We thought that a guy like Sarwan, coming into the camp with us whilst planning for the World Cup, would bring a wealth of knowledge.

“We are hoping he can help the batsmen get a better understanding of how to finish games, the mindset, how to approach batting first, how to approach batting last, so we thought that kind of knowledge was very important to share. He fitted in very well. He did a lot of talking and a lot of work with the batsmen.”

Cricket West Indies also released their full list of coaching and support staff for the world cup a couple of days ago, and will be part of the team for the tri-series against Ireland and Bangladesh apart from the training camp for the world cup, which will be taking place in Barbados.

“CWI have, in consultation with interim Head Coach Floyd Reifer, assembled a strong support group of coaches to work with the squad for the Tri-Series against Ireland and Bangladesh as we prepare for the World Cup,” Adams had said. “This support group will continue throughout the ICC Cricket World Cup in England.

Windies Coaching Staff and Team Management: Floyd Reifer (Interim Head Coach), Roddy Estwick (Assistant Coach), Corey Collymore (Assistant Coach – Fast Bowling), Rayon Griffith (Assistant Coach – Fielding), Mushtaq Ahmed (Assistant Coach – Spin Bowling), Rawl Lewis (Team Manager) Dr. Oba Gulston (Physiotherapist), Corey Bocking (Strength and Conditioning Coach), Dexter Augustus (Video and Data Analyst), Steven Sylvester (Sports Psychologist), Zephyrinus Nicholas (Massage Therapist)