Top marks for Shell Academy

DR RUDI WEBSTER, Director of the Shell Cricket Academy, has identified a lack of mental toughness as the main reason for the current run of poor results by the West Indies team.

He made the observation yesterday at a media conference to announce the intake of the latest batch of young players to the St George’s, Grenada-based academy, which is affiliated to the St George’s University. The function was staged at the Kapok Hotel and attended by Nick Shorthose, Shell Regional Country Chairman; Andrew Hart, Country Representative, Shell Trinidad Limited; and Dr Michael Seepersad, Chief Cricket Development Officer. Also there were Kurtis Rudd, Shell’s Brand and Communications Manager for the region; Ellis Lewis, first vice-president of the TT Cricket Board of Control and representativs of Nemwil Insurance Company Limited.

Dr Webster, who is currently recuperating from cardiac surgery, is a former professional cricketer who specialises in sports psychology. He is a best selling author who has lived for many years in Australia and has a first hand knowledge of the sports programmes Down Under. He has been described as the “Viagra of the West Indies team” of the 70s and 80s led by Clive Lloyd, when the Caribbean cricketers ruled the roost for more than a decade and a half. He said yesterday the current West Indies team led by Trinidadian Brain Lara appears to be deficient in their psychological preparation to successsfully challenge the Australians who hold a 3-0 lead in the four-Test Cable and Wireless series.

“Mental preparation has been a weak link for the past five or six years. West Indies have been playing excellent cricket and even outplaying the Australians,” said Dr Webster. “You can see that after partnerships lasting more than two hours, the entire team plummets within a short time. This indicates that mentally, the players cannot cope with the challenges posed in the match,” said Dr Webster. Nicknamed “a performance enhancer”, Dr Webster is noted for his work with the West Indies team the last time the Australians toured the Caribbean. Then, after a disastrous performance at the Oval when the homesters were rattled out for a record 51 runs, they bounced back to square the Test series.

Dr Webster said he spoke to Lara then, using the language of golf, the second favourite sport of the double world record holder, who went on the lead the batting for the home side and shock the tourists with several match-winning performances against the odds. Yesterday Dr Webster said the results of the Shell-sponsored academy can compare favourably with or is better than any similar institution in the world and named Ryan Hinds, Dave Bernard Jnr, and Carlton Baugh as those who have recently graduated to Test status. The three coaches running this year’s programme from May 16 to August 7 are former West Indies coach Roger Harper, ex-Test fast bowler Kenny Benjamin and noted Barbadian coach Dawnley Boxhill.

Four TT players are among the intake of 25 in the class of 2003. They are Dwayne Bravo, Amit Jaggernauth, Denzil James and Kenton Thompson. The others are: Krishna Arjune, Derwin Christian, Damodar Dasrath, Brian Stephney (Guyana); Othneil Baptiste, Greg Francois, Denzil George (Windward Islands); Mwanghi Broomes, Carlo Morris, Randy Thomas, Ryan Wiggins, Jason Bennett (Barbados); Juari Edwards, Tonito Willett (Leewards Islands); Shawn Findlay, Danza Hyatt, Maurice Kepple, Tamar Lambert, Andrew Richardson, Jerome Taylor, Dwight Washington.