Camp Talk: Ganga Praises Coach
(Trinidad Guardian)
"The man has tried and tested philosophies on coaching cricket and he is going to take the game forward in the Caribbean no doubt." These are the thoughts of West Indies player Daren Ganga about his new coach Bennett King.
Ganga returned to Trinidad & Tobago last week after a two and a half weeks camp conducted by King in Barbados in preparation for the VB Triangular cricket series in Australia.
In an interview, Ganga said that he was very impressed with the Australian and has fully bought into his method of coaching. ?The first thing that impressed me about this man was the fact that he came across as somebody who really cares for the players. I can tell you that King is not just here to develop cricketers but to help develop better human beings.?
Ganga added that this approach by King was well received by the 25-man training squad and as a result he was able to gain their respect. ?King is well organised and is well aware of what he wants to achieve with this West Indies team and the time he expects to do it in. We were all put through interviews upon arriving at the camp and from this point King and his team were able to start their assessment of the players.?
?Personally I was able to identify my weak points and was then provided with methods to go about correcting the flaws. What he preached to us was the fact that if we had a bad habit that was affecting our game, we needed to work constantly in order to correct the problem."
?Let me give you an example of the corrective methods he used. If a batsman had a certain problem playing a certain shot, he would take them aside and have them hit about 1000 balls with the corrected technique. He reads from the gospel of making the correct practices habitual, in order to get over the problems.?
Ganga showed that the camp was refreshing as he scored 107 in his first competitive match since returning from the camp. ?I can say that I am an improved player after attending the camp. I know what is the problem and I know what has to be done to correct it.?
King also introduced to the VB 2005 class lectures on ?West Indian Cricket History?. ?We were schooled a bit on the history of West Indies cricket and this I thought was very good indeed. This was not the case before and we received this information very well.?
The T&T captain said that the guys were drilled with constant fielding exercises because King wanted them to elevate to the top in this aspect. ?King?s belief is that the Caribbean players are natural athletes and should be great fielders. He saw something their to work with and put in a number of hours work with fielding drills.?
He added that the players were pushed to their limits with physical exercises. ?The coaches gave us a hard time and pressurised us to our threshold points, which were noted. They wanted men to come out and dig deep, the sport is not for the faint hearted. Men had to stand up and exhibit fighting qualities and this was emphasized also during the period. What they did was to take you right down and test you further to see the performance level at this point of physical and mental tiredness.?
Ganga is awaiting the naming of the West Indies team for the VB series but if he misses out, then T&T cricket will be the benefactor, as he would lead the national side in the regional Carib Beer series beginning on January 7.