West Indies batsmen turn to Ramnaresh Sarwan for tips

Sarwan, 38, who played 87 Tests, 181 one-day internationals and 18 Twenty20 Internationals before retiring with 11,944 runs across formats for the West Indies, has been brought in at the training camp to help the batsmen ahead of the tri-nation ODI series in Ireland and the World Cup to follow in England and Wales.

His focus is on helping improve their running between the wickets and in finishing games.

“I have come here to act as kind of a mentor to the players and try my best to assist them in any technical ways and with any shortcomings where I think they can improve, and to offer as much help to the head coach, Floyd Reifer, and his coaching staff,” said Sarwan.

“I know our batsmen have struggled in the past with rotating the strike, so I am trying to see how best we can get them to improve in this area... It’s not an overnight fix, but it’s important to share ideas with them, so that they have something to build on.”

Reifer, who took over as coach last week, expected the veteran to have a "wealth of knowledge" to share.

“Sarwan was a player that was outstanding for West Indies. A very good batsman. A very good ‘finisher’ in limited-overs matches," he said. "We thought that a guy like Sarwan, coming into the camp with us whilst planning for the World Cup, would bring a wealth of knowledge.

“We are hoping he can help the batsmen get a better understanding of how to finish games, the mindset, how to approach batting first, how to approach batting last, so we thought that kind of knowledge was very important to share. He fitted in very well. He did a lot of talking and a lot of work with the batsmen.”