Windies upbeat ahead of Lord’s Test

he West Indies men’s team had a less-than-ideal start to their summer tour of England, with flight troubles affecting some players, and rain washing out much of the final day of their only warm up match. But assistant coach Jimmy Adams has maintained an upbeat attitude.

With the visitors nursing a slight lead on the third day of their tour match against the County Select XI, after two days of variable cool and gloomy conditions, seemingly presaging rain, the heavens finally opened on Friday.

No play was possible in the first session at the Kent County Cricket Ground in Beckenham. An early lunch was taken and play resumed at 1:30 p.m. BST. The tourists belatedly began day three on 57-2, leading by 23 runs in their second innings.

Alick Athanaze and Joshua Da Silva brought a bit of Caribbean sunshine to the proceedings, each hitting a half-century as the West Indians built their total to 196-5, and their lead to 162. Their time in the middle lasted 44 overs before the declaration.

Athanaze’s unbeaten 66 was his second half-century of the game. The 25-year-old Dominican faced 99 balls, and struck 11 fours in the process. Wicketkeeper/batsman Da Silva was also not out. He made 51 off 69 balls, inclusive of six fours.

Rain interrupted once more when the Select XI were put in again, but not before Jeremiah Louis and young Johann Layne could snaffle up two quick wickets. Gudakesh Motie, fresh off the plane after having been stranded in Guyana, bowled a single over.

The West Indies now turn their attention to the first Test against England, starting Wednesday, 10 July at Lord’s Cricket Ground.

Adams, a veteran of 54 Test matches, is no stranger to England. The 56-year-old Jamaican has played with Berkshire and Nottinghamshire, and was appointed head coach at Kent in 2012. Up to last year, he was the director of cricket for Cricket West Indies.

“I think it’s gone pretty well,” he said of the team’s
first two weeks on tour. “We had some really good weather in that first week, and we’ve made full use of it. We had some decent facilities at Tonbridge School, thanks to them for opening up the facility to us for the three days. And then we had two days, again the weather permitted us, two days
of solid practice at Canterbury, the home ground for Kent County. And then we’ve had the game here at Beckenham in Kent again.

“Barring a bit of bad weather yesterday evening, we’ve managed to get a lot of solid cricket played over the last three days, so we are generally happy with what has happened so far. What we would have wanted to get from the time that we’ve spent, we’ve gotten. The weather has been kind to us. We know it can get a little bit rough here weatherwise in England. So all in all we’re pretty happy with what the weather has allowed, the facilities we’ve been given, and what the guys have been able to do since they’ve come here.

Adams went on to point out that with a relatively inexperienced team at this level, every bit of exposure in English conditions is crucial.

I think it’s important that they get as much live practice as they can in conditions that a lot of them are not familiar with,” Adams explained. “I would say that irrespective of anywhere they travel outside of the Caribbean a lot of them have never toured England before; some have, but a lot of the batters haven’t. So it’s an opportunity for them to get as acquainted as they can with conditions before they run into the international opposition, and I think they’ve done pretty well.

“It’s a really good group I think in terms of their ability to and their willingness to learn. Some of them went to Australia a few months back and they showed this capacity to learn very quickly, and I’m hoping that that continues. As a coach you can’t ask for more than that. They’ll work hard, they’ll learn quickly, and what we can do is just try and give them maybe a little heads up on what to expect, both in terms of conditions and opposition.”

Speaking of that Australia tour, on which the West Indies earned a famous Test win, Adams feels that the confidence earned Down Under can carry over.

“Well, we definitely want to build on it. I can’t speak to what is happening outside or around, but I do know from a team, from a squad perspective, it was a great fillip for us. Certainly when you have such a young group, you are quite keen to bed down a lot of things. Some of them are early in their careers, and results like that can help the teaching process, because it reinforces and hopefully moves certain things from theory to reality. And it then means that maybe instead of having
to teach in the future, you can just remind, because they’ve been there and nothing really is a substitute for having been in battle, and come out on the other side intact. And yeah, it helped, and hopefully you know as a group that’s young but growing, hopefully we can add to that going forward.”

terryfinisterre@barbadostoday.bb