Butts Taking Windies Spinners to Camp

It's training time now for up-and-coming West Indies finger spinners.

Following last month's fast bowling camp in Antigua, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has contracted former Guyana off-spinner Clyde Butts to run a similar course for 15 of the region's most promising spin bowlers from January 12-17.

Sources told CaribbeanCricket.com Butts will teach the tricks of the trade to a group that originally included Jamaica's Gareth Breese, Anguilla's Chaka Hodge and Rodney Sooklall from Trinidad and Tobago.

Breese, however, had to pull out of the camp because of knee surgery (see related story).

On Thursday, the WICB announced legendary off-spinner Lance Gibbs would serve as a Technical Advisor at the camp

Participants expected at the Antigua camp are:

Ryan Austin (Barbados)
Kevin Bazil (Guyana)
Chaka Hodge (Leeward Islands)
Lorenzo Ingram (Jamaica)
Amit Jaggernauth (Trinidad & Tobago)
Larry Joseph (Leeward Islands)
Philip Keating (Jamaica)
Dwayne Leverock (Bermuda)
Zaheer Mohammed (Guyana)
Orson Nurse (Leeward Islands)
Anderson Sealy (Barbados)
Shane Shillingford (Windward Islands)
Wayne Simpson (Jamaica)
Jason Smith (Barbados)
Rodney Sooklal (Trinidad & Tobago)

A WICB release said the camp will "cover a number of critical areas" that have been identified by Gibbs, including the finger spinner's grip, run-up and delivery, effective use of height and body, detecting and exploiting errors of batsmen, field setting strategies, flight, loop and spin, and improving the spinner's armory.

"We have targetted a number of promising spin bowlers, but a few had prior territorial commitments and could not make the camp," WICB coaching director Mike Seepersaud said. "The camp has been timed to coincide with the beginning of the West Indies first-class championship and it is hoped that a number of these bowlers will be given an opportunity during the Championship to expose their talent."

Seepersaud said there was another strategic reason for the camp, saying the idea for the camp came out of a casual analysis of the weaknesses of the Australian team arriving in the Caribbean in April for a series of four Tests and seven limited-overs internationals.