Williams pleased with attitude of players

The attitude of the West Indies team has been positive during the two-week training camp at the Kensington Oval, according to David Williams. The squad is preparing for tours of Zimbabwe and South Africa with Williams and Hendy Springer as acting coaches while John Dyson, the head coach, is unavailable.

"The attitude has been a lot better in terms of the guys being adept to fielding drills and batting and bowling," Williams told the Nation. Springer and Williams are taking charge of the side for the Zimbabwe leg of the tour while Dyson remains in his home country of Australia to finalise personal matters.

"I think we are heading in the right direction," Williams said. "I think it is just a matter of the guys continuing in that vein, giving the effort, showing enthusiasm and hopefully, we can move forward from here."

However, Williams said bad weather had hampered the team's preparation and they had also lost three days because of a development course conducted by the University of the West Indies. "There is a lot that we need to work on," Williams said. "Cricket is all about batting, bowling, fielding and then you got the mental side. This is one of the areas that we need to continue working on.

"We have seen changes in the camp so far and we just hope that the guys can go on and continue doing the things that the UWI guys taught them and basically put them into practice. It is very important."

West Indies are currently eighth in both the Test and ODI rankings and Williams said while cricket in the region was struggling to hold its own, he felt hard work was the only answer. "We are down in the bottom there and I think our job is to try to get out of that hole," he said. "I know it is going to take a lot of work but I'm really looking forward to the job.

"The stint in South Africa [during the World Twenty20] was all right. It opened up my eyes to a few things and having the opportunity to work with the guys here for 10-12 days in this camp, we were really able to make some strides and that is very important."

West Indies leave on Sunday for Zimbabwe where they will play five ODIs before going to South Africa for three Tests and five ODIs.