Joseph and Cornwall making progress in High Performance Program
Fri, Apr 20, '18
St John’s, ANTIGUA - WINDIES Senior Team pacer, Alzarri Joseph and WINDIES A team all-rounder Rahkeem Cornwall have been in an intensive rehabilitation and fitness program.
Joseph’s program has been geared towards helping him recover and rehabilitate from a stress injury to his back, sustained during the WINDIES tour of New Zealand late last year. Joseph has already completed four weeks of physical training and is currently on his 16 day of “return to bowling” program.
High-Performance Director, Graeme West is pleased with Alzarri’s progress and reaction to the rehabilitation program. West indicated “The really positive thing so far is that there’s been no negative reaction by his body to bowling. Roddy Estwick has introduced a couple small technical changes that we hope will help his efficiency and take a little bit of stress off his bowling action.”
Cornwall, on the other hand, has had a shorter period since starting the fitness program but is making quick progress. He has played a considerable amount of cricket over the last 6 months. However, CWI has identified a window where he could focus on some physical training and he is currently working six days a week with Strength and Conditioning Coach to complete a three-week program.
West was also pleased with the progress and determination that Cornwall has shown, “He’s progressing very well and will be putting that to the test soon, with some club cricket in Antigua. The ultimate goal is to have him ready for ongoing tours to include, but not limited to WINDIES A tour of the England, CPL, Super50 and the 4-Day League.”
Both Cornwall and Joseph train at the Coolidge Cricket Ground. Strength and Conditioning Expert, Ronald Rogers is part of the team included in the recovery of both players.
The program is managed by West, along with Dr. Oba Gulston Manager of Sports Medicine and Science, along with Rogers and Bowling Consultant Roddy Estwick.
ST JOHN’S, Antigua (CMC) – Legendary former Test captain, Sir Vivian Richards, has thrown his weight behind CARICOM’s efforts at governance reform in West Indies cricket. The Antiguan, who never lost a Test series as skipper, said he believed the regional nation grouping’s intentions were genuine and were aimed at correcting some of the problems which have plagued the sport regionally.
“They are not in anyway, in my opinion, looking to run the board or anything of that particular factor,” the 66-year-old told the Observer newspaper here. “They’re just looking basically to address some of the problems which we have in terms of administration and things like that.
“We saw what happened in Guyana so no government (faction) should get involved and we see that at the highest level even with FIFA and so forth, so the same applies here to the governments in the region.” CARICOM is challenging Cricket West Indies’ right, as a private entity, to manage the “public good” of West Indies cricket.
In fact, the body has endorsed the 2015 Governance Report which recommended the “the immediate dissolution” of CWI and the appointment of interim board “whose structure and composition will be radically different from the now proven, obsolete governance framework.”
Chris Gayle: T20's biggest visionary and revolutionary
Fri, Apr 20, '18
by SIDHARTH MONGA
Junior Bennett, who coached Jamaica to five straight regional first-class titles without any experience of having played first-class cricket himself, loves to tell a story of Chris Gayle's evolution as a batsman. Back when Gayle hadn't yet made it, most people in Kingston would turn up, Bennett says, just to watch one shot. When the ball would be short of a length, even higher than the hip, Gayle would go back, get tall and punch it "down the road".
Now Gayle hardly plays that shot. Bennett has also spent time with Jamaica Tallawahs, once upon a time Gayle's Caribbean Premier League team. In the nets Gayle sometimes still plays that shot, looks straight at Bennett, and says: "I still have it, coach."
Yet Gayle knows the shot gets you only one or two runs in limited-overs cricket once the field spreads out. And Gayle was the first one to actually teach us that the first casualty of Twenty20 cricket was the importance of the single. So now when you pitch short of a length to Gayle, you will find he has his front leg out of the way and, depending on the width available, he either slogs over midwicket or goes over extra cover.
If it is a century from Chris Gayle, it usually means one of two things. Either he blazes through to the milestone with a barrage of big hits at the start or he makes up for a sluggish beginning with by going bonkers later in his innings. In both cases, he ends up with a superior strike rate immaterial of the start. However, it was a different story that unfolded off Gayle's bat against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Coming into this game against SRH, with all their bowlers possessing an economy rate of less than eight an over, and accounting 23 wickets between them, there was a clear challenge thrown at Kings XI Punjab - whether their power-packed top order would yield the kind of results that it is known for, against a quality bowling attack? That answer came via Gayle's bat but it wasn't the kind of slam-bang solution that is generally associated with him.
The Mohali pitch for this game was unlike the one on offer against CSK, where KXIP were looking good for a 220-plus total but eventually ended up with 197, mainly because they couldn't capitalise on the start provided by Gayle and KL Rahul. In this game, the wicket appeared very tricky - some deliveries kept low and it wasn't coming on to the bat as much as the batsmen would have liked.
Don’t get me wrong. I am happy and proud that West Indian Shai Hope has been honored as one of Wisden’s five Cricketers-of-the-Year, and I hope he grows from strength to strength (pardon the pun). Like he said, it as “humbling and was a bit of a shock when I got the news and obviously a huge privilege being named among the five.” Many are pleasantly shocked too. Hope was selected on the basis of one test-his outstanding performance at Leeds, when he became the first batsman in 127 years of first class cricket at Headingley to score a century in both innings. He made 147 in the first innings and an unbeaten 118 in the second, as West Indies chased down 322 to win by five wickets and level the three-match series 1-1. It was a memorable effort, and one that deserves a place in the history books. But to be named as a Wisden Five? Indeed, prior to the achievement, Hope had only managed a single half-century in 21 previous innings, at an average of 18. His career average is only 33 from 17 Tests and his selection confirms the paucity of talent and class in the present West Indies batting lineup. Unfortunately, gone are the days when Headley, Worrell, Weekes, Walcott, Sobers, Kanhai, Lloyd, Butcher, Richards, Rowe, Kallicharran, Fredericks, Richardson, Greenidge, Haynes, Lara, Gayle, Chanderpaul, Sarwan, Hooper and company dominated bowlers all around the world in the hundreds of innings they played. Perhaps selecting Hope was belated largesse for Wisden ignoring many of these Caribbean giants in their heyday, or being too slow to recognize their achievements.
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