Daesrath is a team player - Says Smith
By Faizool Deo
Stabroek News
January 4, 2005
Coach of Guyana's senior team, Albert Smith, is confident that newly appointed captain Damodar Daesrath will do well in the away-from-home matches in this year's Carib Beer four-day cricket tournament slated to commence on Friday.
Speaking to Stabroek Sport, Smith related that Daesrath is a team player. "We saw his potential in Berbice and thought that he did a fine job in the inter-county competition. He is a team player... easy to work with... The senior players get along well with him also. They show him the respect needed," Smith said. Smith, who has coached the senior team since 2002, related that the plan for the first four matches away from home is to pick up points by working as a team.
He said if any player does not cooperate in the way that they should on the tour, they would suffer the consequences.
In terms of doing well, the senior coach who also acted as a selector for the current squad, was very optimistic, noting that the players are showing the fitness and zest to do well.
But performance will most likely be a result of the encampment led by former West Indies coach Roger Harper.
The 47-year-old Smith praised Harper for his sharpness when it came to training the team. "I think that the encampment was a success. It was good to see the board get a team properly prepared. I was asking for that [for] a long time.
"The guys have developed, physically they have improved. Fitness has improved.
"Technical skills were addressed and there were remedial drills for the batsmen, and bowling and fielding drills also; those drills were practiced diligently." The coach related that at team meetings, the senior players who have been around a number of years indicated that they have never trained so intensively.
This intensive method of training, Smith hopes, could be applied to the junior players.
He called for Harper to be used at the under-19 level as well to mould the players before the senior level.
Today the team is expected to have its final practice session before departing for Trinidad tomorrow night, to play the national team on Friday.