King makes Windies players fit in at camp

BRIDGETOWN: Windward Islands’ Deighton Butler revealed that the on-going West Indies training camp has been of great benefit to him. The 30-year-old left-arm medium-fast bowler confessed that the camp has challenged him to lift his game and broaden the scope of his preparations. “I am enjoying the camp and am feeling really good because the training is brilliant,” he told reporters at a news conference at the Three Ws Oval on Thursday. “I’ve never really had anything like this before. I thought I was a hard trainer on my own, but I’ve never had anything like this and I am feeling good for it.”

Butler disclosed that a lack of good coaches and facilities in his native St Vincent and the Grenadines meant he had paid plenty of focus on his physical fitness at the expense of his technical proficiency. “I do a lot of running and work in the gym because the facilities are not there to get a lot of cricket practice, so I have had to make up with a lot of fitness training,” he said. “This camp has given me more than I have had before. I have learnt a lot and I think all of the other players can say the same thing.” Butler also endorsed new team boss Bennett King. The West Indies Cricket Board employed the Australian a few weeks ago to become the first foreign coach of the West Indies team.

“When we started the camp, the coach said we should not call him ‘coach’, but we should just call him Bennett or Kingy, which means he sees himself  —  all of us —  as a group,” he said. “His thing has been to make sure that all of us fit in and feel like we belong here and in that way everyone can give of their best. “He said to us ‘Don’t die with the music inside you’, which means we should not leave wondering what if we have given our all.” Butler has played neither Tests nor limited-overs internationals for West Indies, but has contested 26 First-Class matches over the last five years.