Cricket fans will remember that Gibbs once held the world record for most Test wickets (309) and was the first spin bowler to pass 300 wickets in Test match cricket.

“The aim of the camp is to provide some of the region’s most promising orthodox bowlers with the fundamentals of a good bowling action and to examine and analyse techniques of effective spin bowling,” remarked Dr. Michael Seepersaud, chief cricket development officer of the WICB.

“It also continues our programme of involving outstanding former players more and more in the development of our cricket. We believe that greats like Lance and Andy Roberts, who recently conducted a training camp for our fast bowlers, has much to offer and you will see more of this.”

Another former West Indies off-spin bowler, Clyde Butts, who holds the record for the most wickets in the West Indies first-class championship, will be the coach at the camp, where the young spin bowlers will cover a number of critical areas that have been identified by Gibbs. They include:

the grip,
run-up and delivery,
effective use of height and body,
detecting and exploiting errors of batsmen,
field setting strategies,
flight, loop and spin, and
improving the spinner’s armoury.

“We have targeted a number of promising spin bowlers, but a few had prior territorial commitments and could not make the camp,” Dr. Seepersaud said.

“The camp has been timed to coincide with the beginning of the West Indies first-class championship and it is hoped that a number of these bowlers will be given an opportunity during the Championship to expose their talent.

“Even if this opportunity is not available now, they would have learnt from the best and would have acquired skills that will serve them well in the future.”

Dr. Seepersaud noted there was another strategic reason for the camp. He revealed the idea for the camp came out of a casual analysis of the weaknesses of the Australian team arriving in the Caribbean in April for a series of four Tests and seven limited-overs internationals.

“We noticed that as far back as the 1950s, the former great England off-spinner Jim Laker was effective against the Aussies and then the wiles of Lance troubled them in the 1960s and Harbhajan Singh destroyed them recently in India,” Dr. Seepersaud said.

“We thought, therefore, that this was a good opportunity to provide our promising finger spinners with the skills and techniques that would improve their efficiency and effectiveness and, hopefully, enhance their chances for selection.”