Cricket West Indies’ (CWI) Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Johnny Grave has revealed that each of the six territories will be equipped with a strength and conditioning (S&C) coach in order to further professionalizing the system.
Grave, while appearing on the Mason and Guest show on Tuesday stated, “Every territory will now have a full time S&C working in that territory not just for the franchise players but the international men and women when they return home and with under 15s, 17s and 19s.”
The CEO reasoned that this was so “because we need stronger, fitter, faster players, we need players to be rehabbed correctly in a professional system because we cannot afford to have the talent we have not be on the field, the talent we have to be lost to career threatening injuries and this is all part of professionalizing the system on and off the field.”
Grave highlighted that the investment most continue. He said, “We got to work hard on facilities, we’ve got to work hard on practice facilities in terms of giving players access to better coaches which is why we’ve got our own coaching system and which we’ve got over 1000 qualified new coaches in the last two years and we’ve got to continue to make the investments.”
Notably over the years, West Indies have suffered a lot of setbacks with injuries ruling out some of their premier players over the years including fast bowlers, Shannon Gabriel, Kemar Roach, Alzarri Joseph and most recently, Jayden Seales.
