Desmond Haynes, the
former West Indies batsman, has been appointed batting consultant to the
national team for their home series against Pakistan. Haynes will work
under head coach Ottis Gibson during the one-off Twenty20 international,
five one-dayers and two Tests, after which the West Indies Cricket
Board will search for a full-time batting coach.
Haynes was part of
the West Indies camp in Barbados last week. "I have always said I wanted
to be involved in West Indies cricket and help in any way I could," he
said. "This is a chance to help the young players with their
development. I just want to see the players get better as we aim for
improvement at all levels in West Indies cricket, and get the team back
to the halcyon days."
There are several
inexperienced players in West Indies' squad for Haynes to work with,
after the board chose to leave out Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan and
Shivnarine Chanderpaul for the first two one-dayers and include Lendl
Simmons and Kirk Edwards. The squad also contains 22-year-old Darren
Bravo.
Since retiring from
cricket, Haynes has worked mainly in administration, and was a WICB
director as well as head of the selection committee. His latest
assignment was as manager of Barbados for the Caribbean Twenty20
tournament. He said he was happy to be working in the coaching
department.
"I am happy to be
part of the team management unit, headed by Ottis, and I believe I can
also help the players with the mental aspect of their game and the way
they go about their cricket in general."
West Indies'
decision to opt for a batting consultant comes after their opponents in
the upcoming series convinced Javed Miandad to work with their batsmen.
According to the
WICB, Haynes has worked with South Africa allrounder Jacques Kallis,
batsman Herschelle Gibbs and young West Indies batsman Darren Bravo
among other international cricketers.
West Indies arrive in St Lucia on Monday ahead of the Twenty20 match against Pakistan, which is on April 21.
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