West Indies Academy head coach Ramesh Subasinghe has been a regular visitor to Saint Lucia over the past 12 months, conducting capacity-building training with local coaches and members of the Saint Lucia Cricket High Performance Centre. Last week, he led a five-day camp with some of the island’s top young fast bowlers at the SLCHPC.
A former medium pacer himself, the Sri Lankan national focused on technical development with quickies such as West Indies U19 players McKenny Clarke and Selena Ross, Windward Islands bowler Keon Gaston, and emerging speedsters like Shawnil Edward and Kethan Charlemagne, among others.
“One of the things with the Caribbean is they’ve got all natural attributes,” opined Subasinghe. “So they’re very good athletes, and I think their strength and conditioning coach here, Damique [Walters], is doing a really great job with these guys around their strength and conditioning.
“So now that they’re building with Damique, it’s about now putting into their actual skill, which is their bowling. So I’ve seen a lot of really good natural athleticism here. So now we are just working out how we can maximise the uniqueness of every individual with some technical interventions.”
Subasinghe worked closely over the week with SLCHPC head coach John Eugene and assistant bowling coach Larry Edward. They deliberated on how much the players should bowl each week, whilst Subasinghe noted that technical development is fundamental for success.
“If you can actually nail your action perfectly every time, or try to, that is the best way of getting that consistency these bowlers are looking for. So action work is really important,” stressed Subasinghe.
“It’s very important that we allocate time in our 12-month calendar to do specific work on technique, because that’s what’s going to actually enhance their potential. Because for some, doing good technique can improve their repeatability of the action. For some, it could be that we are actually introducing a little bit more ball speed by doing certain movements. So, it’s very important you still always keep an eye out on your technique.”
The Windies development coach said he was happy with the level of feedback he was getting from the players. He reported that they were asking a lot of questions, which he welcomed, as it’s critical for bowlers to be very self-aware.
