‘Keep training mind and body’

Former Barbados and West Indies fast bowler Ezra Mosley is urging cricketers to use the break from their sport caused by the coronavirus, to take a reflective look inward and try to become stronger mentally and spiritually.

Barbados has been on a 24-hour curfew for several weeks because of the outbreak of COVID-19. The 2020 cricket season which was scheduled to bowl off last month with the first edition of the Kadooment Cup, a six-week Twenty20 semi-professional tournament to be held under the auspices of the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA). But due to the deadly pandemic, the season has been postponed.

As a result of the season being postponed, cricketers are going through a period of inactivity at a time of the year when they would have been at their most active.

“This a difficult time for cricketers, those who play in domestic competition would have been looking forward to representing their clubs and trying to achieve any personal goals they had set for the season. Our international cricketers who represent the West Indies would have been eagerly looking forward to the three match Test series in England which was scheduled to start in June. The local season has been postponed and there is uncertainty as to when the tour to England will take place. For the first time in their careers, our cricketers are forced to grapple with the domestic and the international seasons which is a strange experience for them,” Moseley told Barbados TODAY.

“Now is the time for our cricketers to be introspective. The delay to the season caused by COVID-19 provides them with the opportunity to see how strong they are mentally, spiritually and emotionally. We pay a lot of attention to the physical aspects of our players, I think our cricketers are among the fittest in the world, but their spiritual and mental sides have been neglected for several years. The lack of mental strength by some of our cricketers is often demonstrated on the field.

“During this period, our cricketers should focus on strengthening their mental and spiritual sides – two areas that are critical to their success. They are not playing cricket at the moment and I urge them to use this time to plan and chart their paths as cricketers.  They should think about cricket and their contribution to the game. We are living in a technological age, therefore our cricketers should spend some time during the lockdown using the technology, analysing and correcting their flaws. I am sure that if they use the time to be introspective, they will emerge from this period stronger and better players,” the former fast bowler said.

Moseley, an England and Wales Cricket Board level three coach, coached the Barbados Women’s team to double success in the regional Women’s Super50 and Twenty20 Blaze tournament in Guyana last year. He added that as a result of the 24-hour curfew throughout the island cricketers were forced to remain indoors which would have placed restrictions on their training.

“These restrictions would have forced them to become innovative in their training and led to bodyweight exercises and calisthenics becoming a major part of their fitness regime, along with the programmes designed for them by the coaches at the BCA and Cricket West Indies. Extended jogging, hitting balls and the other forms of training they normally do in good times would have been curtailed due to the pandemic. The restrictions are being eased a bit from Monday (today) and hopefully this will allow them to train with a bit more intensity in areas where a lot of persons are not congregating, so that by the end of the pandemic they will be in some shape and condition to really train at a higher level and be fit to take the field if cricket is played this year,” Moseley said.