Following a break for the home leg of the Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League (CPL), local players have resumed training with the third group at the Saint Lucia Cricket High Performance Centre (HPC). Some HPC members also helped the Saint Lucia Kings and other visiting teams as net bowlers during the break.
The players jumped back into training earlier this week with sessions at Mindoo Phillip Park. HPC assistant bowling coach and former Windward Islands spinner Larry Edward had the young spinners working on their line and length after the break.
“We just needed to get them back into trying to hit those areas,” Edward said after the opening session. Bowlers utilised pitch maps and cones, with the goal of hitting their marks on 40 out of 45 deliveries. “That’s what we’re looking to do in the next four months,” Edward said.
Edward emphasised the importance of mastering core mechanics, particularly on modern, flatter wickets. Edward, 31, has 124 regional wickets, including 77 scalps in a nine-year First-Class career.
“I’m big on fundamentals,” Edward said. “With spin, you have to actually get on your pivot, coming up and over… guys need to get the ball up and down.”
He cautioned against variations suited only for limited-overs cricket, urging his players to build consistency over long spells.
“If you’re not hitting those areas consistently enough, batsmen might get opportunities to score,” Edward said. “When you go up to Windwards level, you’re going to get batters who are going to challenge you at your weaker areas more often than not. So we’re trying to get them … to stick long enough on it. They need to do that as much as possible so they can get onto the next level.”
Edward pointed out how valuable the CPL experience is for players who haven’t yet made the senior regional or national teams. It gave them a chance to interact with and learn from experienced international cricketers and coaches.
“This is like exposure, going against CPL guys,” Edward remarked.
“It’s going to give them a lot of tactics and trying to know how to bowl to the senior world-class players. So that’s why we were really big on that opportunity for them, so they could really try to advance themselves, get to know a lot more things, look at areas that they could bowl certain, different things that they could try and see what returns they could get from it.”
The assistant coach joined several CPL net sessions and thought the local players held their own and got helpful advice from senior CPL players.
