ST JOHN’S, Antigua, (CMC) - West Indies manager Tony Howard expects his side to bounce back in the fourth and final cricket Test against England, starting at the Antigua Recreation Ground (ARG) tomorrow.
West Indies are looking to avoid a 4-0 clean sweep after losing the previous three Tests at Sabina Park, Queen’s Park Oval and Kensington Oval by comfortable margins.
“The mood in the camp is one of defiance,” Howard said. “We have had several post game meetings with a view to devising a strategy to counteract the things that have happened in the first three games.
“So I suspect you will see a better standard of play from the West Indies team and certainly expect the boys to do one hundred per cent better.”
Howard said the confidence level was severely dented, after the third straight defeat in Barbados last Saturday, but it will be a challenge to get back to a competitive level.
“Once you have been beaten three games in a row there is always going to be that area of doubt if one will,” Howard said.
“But certainly there are certain mechanisms you can use. You need to get the team spirit back up. You need to get the guys working together and we have been doing a lot of that in the last couple of days. We had extensive net sessions.
“We have been doing a lot of in-house work trying to get the guys back up on a level they were a couple years ago,” he added.
Howard feels mental toughness and technique in some of the players -- which pundits say have been lacking -- are two of the areas they have examined.
“(Technique) will certainly come into consideration with the results as they are, but the coach has been working on the techniques,” he said.
“We went into the indoor nets at Cave Hill in Barbados for two days now and we worked on certain strategies to counteract what the English has been offering.
“As far as mental toughness is concerned, that’s not an overnight thing.
That is something one has to work on. You have to first of all get into the guys’ heads to find out where they are emotionally and then once you get there you can start looking at putting strategies back on stream.”
Howard is calling on the players to put the past behind and look ahead.
“The results have gone,” he said. “You can’t do anything about those. You can certainly focus on what is in front of you and the captain certainly is bent on doing a good job, and by and large the team is smiling again.
There are coming to realise you can only go up from here.”
Howard said the motivation from the famous win against Australia last year when they were set a record 418 to win and achieved it should inspire the team.
“That’s a hook line the guys have brought into this Test that we have been successful recently and if we look at our performances in Antigua it must be a happy hunting ground for the West Indies team, so that’s something that also gives them confidence,” he said.
West Indies have never suffered a clean sweep in a Test series on home soil.