The West Indies Men’s team is working to overcome challenges at the international level through targeted development initiatives, including a recently concluded Coaching Symposium and a High-Performance Batting Spin and Spin Bowling Camp.
The Coaching Symposium took place from January 13 to 15, at the Coolidge Cricket Ground in Antigua, while the High-Performance Camp ran from January 11 to 17. The camp brought together 30 of the region’s most promising players.
One of the key focuses during the camp was adaptability to playing against spin. The West Indies’ struggles with batting against the turning ball, particularly in subcontinental conditions, have been well-documented and were evident during their last fixture against Pakistan. The region’s best spin-bowling talents were in attendance to sharpen their skills while testing the capabilities of batsmen.
Head Coach Daren Sammy noted that this work is vital if the Windies are to compete with the best teams in the world. He highlighted the presence of spin bowling specialist coaches from the Chennai Super Kings Academy as instrumental in this effort.
“If you look at how we compete on the world stage, I think we’re probably the only team that doesn’t have that quality of a wrist spinner in the lineup,” the Saint Lucian said in an on-site interview.
“We’ve seen how important it is to the top teams in the world. You look at India, Australia, England – all of them have that ‘X’ factor. Kudos to [Amar] Rashid, who’s been able to impart that knowledge [to] our spinners. The feedback has been great. Now another area of our game that we have to improve is playing spin,” he added.
In attendance at the symposium were coaches from across the region, including 11 franchise coaches from the six regional franchises, along with two coaches from the Combined Campuses and Colleges team.
Sammy, who has now taken the reins of the Windies for all formats, noted that while the discussions at the symposium were positive, it is now time to take action and initiate change.
“The engagement during the different discussions that we have… it was really pleasing for me to see the wealth of knowledge that was in that room and the willingness to participate,” he noted. “We could have all the talk, but without action, it’s still just talk. So that’s what is the most important thing to me – the action that we’ll be able to put in place for us to get better.”
Speaking on the decision to collaborate with franchise coaches during this initiative, Sammy emphasised that cricket branding begins with the club systems, and franchise coaches must be included in discussions.
“If myself and Miles [Bascombe, CWI Director of Cricket] are looking to give direction as to the brand that we want to play, we need to have our next group of cricketers understanding the different roles that are required in the different positions,” he said. “My leadership style is very inclusive and one that operates from clarity and conversations, communication. So once that is clear, then we have a platform or process as to how we go about doing things.”
Overall, Sammy is confident that progress is being made.
“I’m quite happy with the way 2025 has started and the work and the programmes that we’ve put in place to help further develop our cricket,” he said.
