BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Former West Indies Women’s head coach, Vasbert Drakes, has been appointed head coach of Barbados Pride for the upcoming Regional Four-Day Championship in February.
The 52-year-old former Test all-rounder replaces Emerson Trotman who spearheaded Pride’s capture of the 2019-20 first class title – the last championship to be staged since the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Dexter Toppin, a former Barbados seamer, led Pride during last year’s Super50 when the perennial champions lost four of their five matches to finish one from bottom of the six-team table in Antigua.
Drakes, who played 12 Tests and 34 One-Day Internationals between 1995 and 2004, spent two years in charge of West Indies Women after replacing Sherwin Campbell in 2015.
However, he was ousted in an overall shakeup of the coaching staff following the side’s poor showing at the 2017 50-overs World Cup in England when the Caribbean side lost five of seven matches to finish down the table.
Drakes returned as an assistant coach with the West Indies men’s side for the 2019 England tour, only to find himself out of a job in another shakeup ahead of the 50-over World Cup in England later that year.
For the upcoming first class championship, Drakes will be accompanied by former West Indies all-rounder, Ryan Hinds, who has been installed as assistant coach, while Test captain Kraigg Brathwaite continues in charge of the squad.
Under Brathwaite, Barbados Pride broke Guyana Jaguars’ stranglehold on the first class title after winning the abbreviated championship two years ago.
They were 40 points ahead of second placed Jaguars with two rounds left when Cricket West Indies pulled the plug on the tournament with two rounds remaining, due to the emergence of COVID-19 in the Caribbean.