Newly appointed lead coach of the Guyana Amazon Warriors, Rayon Griffith is eager to bring about a positive and intense brand of cricket to the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) as he embarks on a new challenge.
Griffith, in an exclusive interview with this publication expressed his joy when he got the news of his promotion after being the five-time finalists’ assistant coach for the previous three seasons.
“Yes it is a new challenge but I am ready for the challenge. I’ve been around the set up for a while. This is my fourth season with the Amazon Warriors,” he told Stabroek Sport yesterday.
Griffith has made consistent strides in his career over the past decade, having moved from his role with the Guyana Jaguars that won five of the last six First-Class seasons and breaking into the West Indies coaching set up. Among his gigs include participating in the last men and women’s 50-over World Cups in England and Australia respectively. More recently, Griffith was functioning as the assistant coach with the West Indies Test side in the drawn series against Pakistan in Jamaica just prior to the CPL.
With the two World Cup stints under his belt, Griffith believes that this tournament provides the opportunity for young players to put their hands up for selection as West Indies gear up to defend their World T20 title.
“The brand is basically we want to maintain intensity as the tournament goes along and remain positive. We know the World Cup is coming up shortly so I would like to see young players putting their hands up and performing so that they could be selected,” the Level Three coach said.
The former national fast bowler says that while the competition will be challenging due to it being just a few weeks, he believes that the franchise has maintained a core of the squad throughout the last few seasons which, in turn, makes his job easier.
“We have a core group that has also been around for the same period so the familiarity with them is going to make my job easier since we have that unity and understand our roles and strengths.”
Warriors got off to a winning start, beating defending champions, Trinbago Knight Riders in the season opener on Thursday.
“The tournament is now in the beginning and it’s always good to get a winning start because you want points and it helps boost the confidence in the team going forward,” the 41-year-old declared.
As the tournament progresses, Griffith revealed that the team will want to tighten the screws in every department but was keen to improve on their power play performances as they head into the second half of the competition.
Warriors will take on St. Kitts and Nevis Patriots today from 10.00 hours.
