ST JOHN’S, An­tigua – Crick­et West In­dies (CWI) has turned to leg­endary fast bowlers Sir Curt­ly Am­brose and Court­ney Walsh to men­tor some of the re­gion’s up-and-com­ing play­ers.

As part of CWI’s on­go­ing com­mit­ment to nur­tur­ing re­gion­al tal­ent, Sir Curt­ly and Walsh are ac­tive­ly en­gag­ing with West In­dies Acad­e­my play­ers at the Coolidge Crick­et Ground (CCG) in An­tigua.

With over 1,350 wick­ets be­tween them, Sir Curt­ly and Walsh are con­sid­ered to be among two of the great­est fast bowlers to ever play for the West In­dies.

The ini­tia­tive be­gan on May 21, with a pow­er­ful lega­cy dis­cus­sion led by Sir Curt­ly, who shared per­son­al sto­ries and in­sights on the proud her­itage, glob­al achieve­ments, and en­dur­ing spir­it of West In­dies crick­et.

The ses­sion served as a re­minder to the Acad­e­my play­ers of the pres­ti­gious lega­cy they are now part of as emerg­ing am­bas­sadors of the game.

Build­ing on this mo­men­tum, the men­tor­ship pro­gramme will con­tin­ue with a se­ries of tech­ni­cal and ex­pe­ri­en­tial ses­sions led by the fast-bowl­ing greats.

Sir Curt­ly will lead red ball sce­nario-based train­ing, fo­cus­ing on match aware­ness, tac­ti­cal ex­e­cu­tion, and mind­set de­vel­op­ment, while Walsh will guide play­ers through a two-day prac­tice match, of­fer­ing in-depth men­tor­ing as part of his role as bowl­ing men­tor.

Di­rec­tor of Crick­et at CWI, Miles Bas­combe said the ini­tia­tive would pro­vide in­valu­able ex­pe­ri­ence.

“There is no greater in­spi­ra­tion for our young play­ers than learn­ing di­rect­ly from the leg­ends whose names are etched in the his­to­ry of West In­dies crick­et.

“This ini­tia­tive not on­ly en­hances their tech­ni­cal skills but al­so helps in­stil the val­ues, pride, and pas­sion that de­fine what it means to wear the ma­roon,” Bas­combe said.

Acad­e­my head coach, Ramesh Sub­as­inghe, spoke about the im­por­tance of his­tor­i­cal ed­u­ca­tion in the de­vel­op­ment of young play­ers.

“For our young play­ers, un­der­stand­ing the his­to­ry of West In­dies crick­et is just as im­por­tant as de­vel­op­ing their tech­ni­cal and tac­ti­cal skills.

“Hav­ing leg­ends like Sir Curt­ly Am­brose and Court­ney Walsh share their jour­neys, ap­proach­es, and val­ues brings a depth of learn­ing that no text­book or train­ing man­u­al can of­fer,” Sub­as­inghe said.

“It con­nects our play­ers to some­thing greater than them­selves—it re­minds them of the lega­cy they’re car­ry­ing for­ward every time they step on­to the field.”

The men­tor­ship ses­sions are part of a broad­er play­er de­vel­op­ment strat­e­gy be­ing rolled out by CWI to en­sure that promis­ing young crick­eters re­ceive world-class guid­ance both on and off the field.

In two weeks, the Acad­e­my takes on their coun­ter­parts from Sri Lan­ka in An­tigua, in two four-day first-class match­es and three 50-over match­es to be played at the Coolidge Crick­et Ground and the Sir Vi­vian Richards Sta­di­um, re­spec­tive­ly.

CMC