Logie elated over new job

Former West Indies cricket star Gus Logie said yesterday he was elated at his selection as assistant coach of the regional Test team and sees his elevation as reward for years of hard work with the regional youngsters.

The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) announced on Monday that Logie will serve as the assistant coach to Australian Bennet King, coach of the regional team. However since then King has made a statement that the Board acted too soon in announcing him as he has not yet accepted the job. Meanwhile a confident Logie said he looks foward to the back-to-back series against Australia and Sri Lanka. ”I have been involved in West Indies cricket as a coach since 1995 and I see this as reward for the hard work I put in with regional youth teams and the ‘B’ teams,” he said.

Logie, of Sobo Village, La Brea, has served as coach to all the players on the present Test team except Mervyn Dillon. He was also the stop-gap coach in 1997 for the West Indies team when they played Sri Lanka in St Lucia. Looking forward the job at hand, the man rated one of the best fieldsmen in the world, said he has a philosophy that once you play to that, basic things will fall nicely into place. “Of course the guys must want to win and I know that this bunch really want to win and do well. They will need to set their standards and goals and we will be there to help them along the way. “I will need to sit down with the management and set the plan forward and note I am not saying re-building West Indies cricket. I think we are now on the straight and narrow with the number of talented players we have,” Logis said.

Logie recently coached the Canadian team at the ICC World Cup in South Africa. Comparing the two roles, he said the Canadians were a group of amateur cricketers who were at the World Cup playing against teams that were far superior. “This West Indies team is on par with the others in world cricket and this job will prove to be tougher,” he said. “The West Indies team, however, have a lot of talent and I can see us really doing well in the near future. I am looking forward to working with Mr King, skipper Lara and the management team and we will all be working for the benefit of West Indies cricket,” Logie said.