Article by David Harris

Coaching cricket is Sherwin Campbell’s passion, the former Barbados and West Indies opening batsman has coached several teams since he retired from first-class cricket in 2005. 

His first coaching assignment was with the Barbados Under-15 team from 2006 to 2007.  Kraigg Brathwaite, the current captain of the West Indies Test team, Shai Hope, the captain of the One Day International (ODI) side and West Indies players Jomel Warrican, Roston Chase and Kyle Mayers were members of the team. 

 In 2008, Campbell was appointed head coach of the West Indies Women’s team, under his stewardship, the team rise into the top half of the International Cricket Council rankings for the first time.  

During his tenure as coach of the team from 2008 to 2015, the side won the final of the ICC T20 Women Cricket Challenge against Sri Lanka in South Africa in 2010. Three years later, Campbell guided the regional team into the final of the ICC World Cup in India where they emerged as the runners-up to Australia.  

Campbell has done several temporary coaching assignments with Barbados Pride, and the Barbados senior Women’s team, and is employed as a coach with the National Sports Council. He is also the coach of Barbados Youth team that plays in the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) Elite competition.       

Since 2018, Campbell has coached Barbados Boys Under-19 side, last year the team won Cricket West Indies Rising Stars Under-19 Championship and the 50 Over Championship. 

“I was always helping young players when I playing for Barbados and the West Indies. I acted as mentor to the young members in the team, advising about them about the game; and giving them pep -talks to boast their confidence.  After I stopped playing first- class cricket, coaching was a natural progression for me because I was always involved in molding young cricketers when I was a player”, Campbell told Advo Magazine. 

According to Campbell, there is more to coaching than improving a player’s technique, sessions in the nets, and drills.  

“Most of the time when a cricketer is on the field, he can’t see what he is doing wrong, the coach is the player’s eye off the field. He observes the player’s errors and shows him how to correct them. The coach also prepares a player to handle pressure, stay focused, and to be mentally tough” he explained. 

Campbell elucidated on the methods he uses to coach cricketers during the various stages of their development. 

“At primary school the budding cricketers are learning the game, and are taught the fundamentals of the sport, the process is slightly altered after they enter secondary school. At that stage, they are beginning to develop specialist skills in various arears of the game. The next step is senior cricket, at this level the coach examines the player ability, skills level, lifestyle, and their physical and mental attributes. As a cricketer progress, a coach is interested in various aspects of their life, and not only in teaching them how to play cricket. It’s the coach intention to develop a compete person, therefore we focus on the aspect of a cricketer life that will make him successful player and a good citizen”, the level three coach explained.   

He is worried about the standard of cricket in Barbados and believed it has fallen rapidly from when he began playing in the late 1980s. 

“I played domestic cricket when the standard was high, at that time the pitches were not covered and batmen had to adapt to the pitches in those days. Today; all of the pitches are covered, and it is easier for them to score runs, and yet batsmen are not scoring runs like batsmen used to in the 1980s, and 1990s when the pitches were not were not covered.  We need to get local cricket back to the standard it was in the past. When I first started playing domestic cricket, there were three or four fast bowlers and quality spinners in each team, and batsmen were tested before they played at the national level”, Campbell said. 

“The BCA have to find out why the standard of cricket have declined and solve the problem fast. Maybe the season is too long and needs to be shorten. Or maybe too much white- ball cricket is being played and not enough attention is paid to the Elite Competition. I think that at the back-end of the Elite Competition, the best four teams should play in a semi-professional competition. Several years ago, the teams played in the Arawak Tournament, maybe a revised version of a similar tournament will inject a new lease of life into red-ball cricket in Barbados”, he added.  

On the subject of West Indies cricket, the former West Indies vice- captain said he is not satisfied with the performances of the West Indies men and women teams. 

“I grew up in the golden era of West Indies cricket. I was born in 1970 and began playing the game in the 1980s; I made my first-class debut in 1991 and retired in 2005, and I am still involved with the game as a coach. I have seen West Indies cricket at its pinnacle, and I am not satisfied with the performances of the West Indies teams. The men are eighth on the International Cricket Council (ICC) Test rankings, and are ranked ninth in One Day International (ODI) cricket, and fourth in T20. They are inconsistent in all formats of the game; I accept that against India, England, Australia and South Africa, the West Indies might not perform at well as I would like them to against those countries, because are the toughest in the world, but we should be beating the lesser sides like we used too in the past”, Campbell said. 

He questioned the selection and the preparation of the Test team: “The selectors have to look at if they are selecting the best players. And if they are picking the best players, are they receiving adequate preparation for a Test series?  The moment a cricketer enters a team environment they are not going to receive personal coaching, because the focus of the coach is on the team. Even though coaches have the responsibility of preparing the cricketers for Test cricket, sometimes the onus is on the players to ensure that they are doing the extra work”, he added. 

 Campbell said that the low standard of first-class cricket in the regional is one of the reasons for the inconsistence performances by the West Indies. 

“Batsmen should not be contented with playing regional cricket every year and averaging 30 at the end of the season, because that average is going to be divided in half when they reach Test cricket where the quality is higher. The cricket authorities in the region have ignored that the gap between regional cricket and Test cricket must be closed”, Campbell said.   

Campbell who took the West Indies women from being unknowns to the number two position on the ICC rankings said he is disappointed at the team showing in international cricket. 

“They are ranked sixth on the ICC ODI and T20 rankings, and this is a big disappointment for me as someone who played an integral role in, they rise to prominence”, Campbell said.