Former Trinidad and Tobago men’s cricket team head coach Kelvin Williams is all for split training for the West Indies senior men’s team, noting the approach will ease the burden on coaches in international level.
Williams has first-hand knowledge of the rigors of coaching all three formats of the game, having held the reins of the T&T team at a time when Cricket West Indies (CWI) held three regional competitions a season – the four-day regional tournament, the Super50 Cup and the Caribbean T20.
The Caribbean T20 eventually gave way to the franchise-based Caribbean Premier League, while the four-day and Super50 continued to be contested by the six territorial teams.
The recent World Cup review committee report made a direct suggestion about the direction the CWI should take with the next regional team coach. However, Williams agreed with some of the arguments in favor of role specialization. The three-member committee, comprising Chief Justice Patrick Thompson Jr, betting legend Brian Lara and South African cricket coach Mickey Arthur, was set up to review the West Indies team’s performance in the 2022 ICC T20 World Cup behind the Cup led by Nicholas Pooran. the team was eliminated in the qualifying stage in Australia, after losing to Ireland and Scotland.
Shortly after the World Cup exit, West Indies coach Phil Simmons resigned from his post, while Pooran stepped down as captain soon after.
In the executive summary of the report which was made public recently, the committee stated that the issue of separate coaches was considered, but members were unable to give a definitive opinion on whether such an arrangement would suit the needs of cricket. West Indies in no time. – deadline.
CWI CEO Johnny Grave said he expected a new men’s coach to be chosen in late March or early April and that all options would be considered.
Meanwhile, Andre Coley has taken charge of the team for the ongoing series against Zimbabwe and the upcoming series against South Africa.
In the report, the committee noted that, “at present, the West Indies do not play enough red-ball cricket and are not scheduled to play any significant red-ball cricket in the next five years to justify a separate coach red”.
He also stated: “It is arguable that the separation of coaching responsibilities could make the prospect of coaching a WI team less difficult, while adding some flexibility to the role and widening the pool of potential applicants.”
However, Williams had a definite view. He said: “Because there is a lot of cricket being played, I am of the opinion that they should have two separate coaches; one for the red ball and one for the white ball.
“I know the West Indies don’t play that much red-ball cricket, but in modern-day cricket, that’s the direction countries are going.”
He said that while the committee is correct that the red-ball team does not play a lot of Test cricket compared to the bigger countries that have gone down the path of specialist coaching, a coach committed to the formation of the red-balls in the Caribbean could to offer more of his time to identifying and developing players for the longest format of the game, which the report also touched on.
The report stated that, “it is unrealistic to expect players to emerge without some serious investment in talent scouting.”
Williams added: “That way (having separate coaches) you can free up the red-ball coach to go and watch domestic cricket, so when he sits down to pick a team, he’ll pick the right people and you will have time to work with them.
“A lot of international teams, some of the same players play red-ball and white-ball cricket, but when I was the national coach, all these regional tournaments – four-day, 50-overs, T20 – were played in different periods of year, so it was easier for me to focus on each one. But with the demands of the international game, (bilateral multi-format tournaments) to get the best out of coaches, specialization is needed.”
Williams explained: “For Test cricket, you need someone with good management skills and that’s the key. At that level, you have to manage people properly. You already have the technical aspects of things, so the main thing at that level is managing the players in the right way to get the best out of them.”
He continued: “At the same time, strategies for different formats will also be different, so having specialist coaches who can focus on the challenges of that particular format will be a plus.”
He emphasized, however, that “there must also be a good relationship between the two coaches for it to work properly”.
