Fragile windies batting line-up gets assistance of 2 calypso greats

Antigua:Former West Indies batsmen Brian Lara and Ramnaresh Sarwan have been enlisted by the management to work with the team's current lot ahead of the two-Test series against India, Cricket West Indies announced on Saturday.

West Indies have shown some promising signs in recent times. In their most recent Test series, they triumphed 2-1 over a highly-ranked England side on home soil, but barring captain Jason Holder and wicket-keeper Shane Dowrich, none of their batsmen was able to score consistently.

In a quest to maximise the returns from top-order batsmen like John Campbell, Roston Chase, Shimron Hetmyer and Shai Hope, the management have called upon Lara and Sarwan, whose Test careers yielded a total of 17,795 runs, for guidance, an ICC report said.

The duo will work with the West Indies batsmen in the pre-series camp in Antigua as they prepare for their foray into the ICC World Test Championship."We have some good young batsmen in the team, who we believe will form the future of West Indies cricket," Jimmy Adams, Cricket West Indies' director of cricket, said. "We saw some very good signs of development earlier this year in the Test matches when we played so very well to beat England and we want to see them grow and become outstanding players for the West Indies."

"We have taken the step to have Brian and 'Ronnie' work with these players, who have demonstrated a will to learn and succeed. We know they still have the passion and love for West Indies cricket and are eager to assist and share their information with the present generation," he said.

The first of two Tests will get underway in Antigua on August 22, before the teams shift camp to Jamaica for the second Test, starting on September 3.(UNI)