Logie expects pacers to mature

ST JOHN’S: West Indies coach Gus Logie expects the team’s three young fast bowlers to mature on their cricket tour of Africa.

He believes the African trip provides the ideal opportunity for 21-year-old Fidel Edwards, as well as teenagers Jerome Taylor and Ravi Rampaul to learn as much as they can from the senior players in the team. “We hope the progress that they have shown so far in their brief careers continues on the African tour and we are looking forward to them showing exactly what they can do on the tour of Zimbabwe,” Logie told CMC Sports. Logie is also pleased with the contracting of former West Indies fast bowler Kenny Benjamin to be his assistant coach for the African tour. “He has worked with some of the players before and has been doing plenty of work with the fast bowlers around the Caribbean, so we are looking forward to his input with such an inexperienced bowling attack,” the coach said.

Logie, a former West Indies batsman, is not worried about the team being complacent against Zimbabwe in particular. “We see the Zimbabwe tour as an opportunity to continue along the development path that we started in the Caribbean against Australia and Sri Lanka,” he said. “I feel very confident that we can go out there and come out on top. I do not think complacency is something that we want to consider at the moment,” he added. Logie noted that the team’s three-day camp prior to their departure today for Zimbabwe was going smoothly. “We have been trying to do a lot of conditioning sessions and we had Dr Sam Headley, a member of the West Indies Cricket Board’s medical panel, conducting some fitness and performance seminars,” he said. “We had a meeting between the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) president and the players. We also had a mental training programme.” A schedule of more fitness training and technical assessment was carded for yesterday, as well as a face-to-face with Sir Vivian Richards, the chairman of the West Indies selection panel.