Thaindian News

St. John’s (Antigua) Nov 4 (IANS/CMC) West Indies A-team coach Hendy Springer has railed against conventional wisdom that the current stock of batsmen lack competence to play spin.

Springer, a former Barbados off-spinner, was speaking ahead of the start of the West Indies A-Team’s home series against Bangladesh-A this weekend.

He felt the batsmen often had the wrong approach to playing spin, rather than lacked the skill or knowledge to combat to slow stuff.

“There is a lot of spin which is bowled during our regional tournaments and the spinners get a lot of wickets, but it is not that the batsmen cannot play spin, it is more of their approach to playing spin,” he said in an interview with Windies Cricket Media.

“They get impatient and look to take more risk than they should against the spinners after being bogged down for some time so it is the attitude which lets them down.”

Springer also expected the matches against the Bangladeshis to feature a heavy surfeit of spin bowling, considering the nature of some of the pitches around the Caribbean.

“The pitch at the Vivian Richards Cricket Ground appears to be on the slow side, so I believe that spin will play a major role in the bowling attacks on both sides.”

Springer noted the importance of the series, highlighting that the performances for the A-team gave the selectors a good indication of whether players are ready to move to the next level.

“We saw from the last time West Indies-A played against Bangladesh-A a number of players including Darren Bravo, Nelon Pascal and Shane Shillingford going on to play for the West Indies,” he said.

“Being a part of this A-Team is an opportunity for players to keep their names in the minds of the selectors and put in the performances which will help them to move on to the senior side.”

Springer has been the A team head coach since 2006 and said the current team is a good combination of players with solid international experience, players who are looking to re-establish themselves at that level and players who have been rewarded for doing well at the regional level.

“It is a good mix of guys who have come to the A-Team from different paths but who have a common goal,” he said.

“The A-Team programme also has an internal scouting component to it as well because what it also allows for is to identify some players who might need to be included in the next batch of the High Performance Centre for further work on their development.”

The first Test starts Saturday at the VRCG and the second Nov 12 at the Beausejour Cricket Ground in St. Lucia.

The two sides will then contest three One-day matches Nov 23, 25 and 27 - all at the Arnos Vale Multiplex in St. Vincent.

–IANS/CMC
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