By Romario Samaroo
It is rare to find a cricketer, who, having played alongside many of today’s cricket stars, is not involved in the playing aspect of the sport but is rather content to coach some of his peers instead.
That, however, is the case with Ryan Hercules.
Hercules represented Guyana at the Under-19 level alongside Veerasammy Permaul who, incidentally, is the captain of one of the sides currently involved in a four-day practice match to arrive at the Guyana Harpy Eagles side for the upcoming regional season.
He has also played alongside national captain, Leon Johnson at the regional youth level where he rubbed shoulders with the likes of Kieron Pollard, Sunil Narine, Shamarh Brooks, Andre Fletcher, Kemar Roach and Gajanand Singh.
He is in the same age group as a number of international cricketers such as David Warner, Matthew Wade, Usman Khawaja, Aaron Finch, Shakib Al Hasan, Moeen Ali, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Cheteshwar Pujara, Colin Munro, Martin Guptill, Dean Elgar and Angelo Mathews.
Many cricketers over the world transition to coaching when their on-field careers are no more, but for Hercules, this was not the case.
He made the transition at a relatively early age and, at 35-years-old, he is now one of the youngest head coaches going into this year’s Cricket West Indies (CWI) Regional Four-Day Championships.
Speaking to this publication during a recent interview, the former fast-bowling all-rounder said, “In terms of my role as the head coach, it has been okay so far, I’ve been adapting and adjusting, making a few adjustments. Adapting to what I’ve been looking for from some of the guys in the franchise, to be professional as possible, the support staff is on the same page in terms of what we are trying to achieve, which Guyana is winning.”
Quickly moving up the ranks, the Essequibian, who enjoyed stints in England and Australia, subsequently returned home and found success in the coaching realm, coaching Essequibo to titles at the senior three-day and 50-over franchise league tournaments as well as the female U-17 County side.
Hercules continued to realize his aspirations when he was appointed last season as assistant coach to the Harpy Eagles as well as the Guyana Amazon Warriors in the Caribbean Premier League deserving reward for copping the Guyana Cricket Board coach of the year award in 2018.
After the two scheduled practice matches, the Harpy Eagles will face defending champions Barbados Pride in Antigua from February 1 then travel to Grenada to face Windward Volcanoes at the National Stadium from February 8.
The tournament will then have a break and resume on March 15 and run until April 1 with the final three rounds which will be played in Trinidad and Tobago.
