THE LEGENDARY Desmond Haynes is keen on batting again for the sake of rebuilding West Indies cricket.
But he prefers to play his shots in an advisory role and has reiterated his call for a West Indies Cricket Academy to be set up so he and other cricketing icons can assist the current generation of Caribbean cricketers.
Speaking at the sixth annual Thinking Sport Symposium, entitled Rebuilding West Indies Glory at the Cascadia Hotel here Wednesday, the former outstanding opening batsman also said he would despatch the West Indies Test and One-Day team coach to the boundary and let him play his innings at the academy.
"If I had anything to do with it, I'm not too sure if I would invest in a coach for the West Indies team. If I'm going to pay that money to any coach for West Indies, he must be working with my academy because if you look at what is happening on tours with all the best coaches that they got in the world, what time have they got to work with those players during a Test series or a One-Day game?" Haynes asked.
Haynes, who was recently reinstated to the West Indies Cricket Committee, said he made this suggestion a long time ago but he was still willing to come to the crease and be part of a cadre of coaches working at the academy and passing on knowledge of the game to younger players.
Haynes also suggested that technology, namely videotaping, be used more in the coaching process. He noted it could also prove to be a cost-cutting measure.
"I believe the technology that we've got now, we don't need to be travelling around the world to be with a guy to tell him simple little things that we could do to assist in improving the players by just watching a little videotape of the guy, the way he practises in the nets, the way he holds his head.
"I believe that if we do that, the West Indies Cricket Board can save the money used for an international coach to travel around the world with our team. If we are going to have an international coach, please let that money be used on our cricket academy," he said.