Guyana Jaguars’ head coach, Esuan Crandon has underscored the importance of the recent inclusion of performance analyst, Dinesh Mahabir to the franchise ahead of the Regional Super50 competition.
Last week Cricket GUY Incorporated announced the hiring of Mahabir who has tasted success, having worked with the West Indies Emerging Players, winners of the last Super50 competition as well as with the International Cricket Council’s Under-19 World Cup 2016 winners the West Indies.
“With regards to the performance analyst, I think it is a great inclusion to our squad,” Crandon told Stabroek Sport from Antigua where the team is currently preparing for its first game against the Barbados Pride on Monday.
“I think it will only do well for this team, it is something we have been working on for the past couple of years and I am happy that the franchise has gotten on board to provide that additional support for us,” he added.
The head coach added, “We know the difference a performance analyst can make in a team. Obviously it will provide the players with a lot of details and information on themselves and their personal game and the opposition. That will give us a very clear idea, how to plan more in detail for opposition players.”
Crandon explained, “At the end of the day I think it is only going to help us lift our standards and help the players be more aware with what is going on with the opposition and also better prepare them mentally, technically and tactically for the opposition so I am excited about it and we have already started putting some stuff together and hopefully we can get it kicking going into this tournament.”
Meanwhile, having arrived in Antigua since Monday, Crandon said that the team has already settled in and used the mandatory quarantine time to brush up on research.
“The guys settled in nicely so far. We are trying to make ourselves as comfortable as possible here in our accommodation. You know we spent most of the first day in the room and the second day we were allowed to move around in small groups and, at least, to go out to get some fresh air and sunlight…We also used the opportunity to have a few chats on Zoom and we went through a few videos on the opposition, we are trying to make use of the time in the rooms,” he said.
The former national player reckoned, “Our first practice session was on Friday (yesterday) and I know all the guys were excited for that. They just wanted to get out there and get in their work to hit the ground running.”
Crandon also revealed, “As we prepare for our practice session we have been stressing on the importance of preparing well, the importance of being very disciplined in their preparation and also the importance of practice and training with the sort of intensity you would want to play in the game so we’ll obviously look to tackle the basic skillsets, try to see how best we can get guys in their right frame of mind and prepare them as similar as possible to what they are going to be facing in the match situation so we are going to try to get the best out of these guys during our training sessions.”
