Going With Hoad

Joe Hoad is to continue as sports psychologist to the West Indies cricket team during the forthcoming home series against South Africa.

Barbados-born Hoad, who has lived in Adelaide for the past 25 years, was appointed to the team after the second Test on its recent tour of Australia. He arrives in Barbados on Friday on his way to join the planned pre-series camp in Trinidad prior to the first Test in Georgetown March 9-13.

Dr. Rudi Webster, who was the first so-called "performance enhancer" attached to the West Indies team during the Australian tour of the Caribbean in 1999, is now head of the Cricket Institute at St. George's University in Grenada and is unavailable.

Hoad, 64, is the son of the late West Indies Test captain E.L.G. "Teddy" Hoad and played cricket for Pickwick and Carlton. He was also Caribbean table-tennis champion and a leading darts player in Barbados beforeemigrating to Australia with his wife's family.

He qualified as a sports psychologist two years ago after a three-year course with the Adelaide Department of Sports Science. His most recent attachment has been to Adelaide Cricket Club.