How Guru Radford Helped Steer Windies Back To Winning Ways

A WELSHMAN played a major role in the startling transformation of the West Indies from their skittling at Edgbaston one week to historic victory at Headingley the next.

- Peter Jackson

Toby Radford, re-signed as the tourists’ batting coach last year following his abrupt removal by Glamorgan, describes how they did the seemingly impossible and how their opener Kraigg Brathwaite recovered from the rout in Birmingham to show the rest the way.

At Leeds, Brathwaite batted through more than 70 overs over the course of ten hours, lasting longer at the crease than the whole team at Edgbaston in both innings put together. A lot of home truths had been told by the time they arrived at Headingley.

“Two days after Edgbaston we went back to the dressing-room for an open, honest meeting between players and coaches,” Radford, the former Middlesex opener and first-team coach, said. “We all agreed that we’d been timid and not shown enough fight.

“We knew that it had been a very weak and poor performance but that we were still a good side with top-quality players,” Radford said. “We had beaten Pakistan twice this year, had scored several centuries and achieved five-wicket hauls.

“We had not been aggressive enough with the ball and most of our dismissals were to deliveries that seamed back into the stumps getting us bowled or leg before.”