By Robertson S. Henry
GROS-ISLET, St Lucia – The Saint Lucia National Cricket Association recently announced the appointment of Garey Mathurin as head coach of the senior national team for the period 2020-2021.
Mathurin acquired an ECB certified level 2 coach in 2012 and is currently working on attaining his level 3 certification. He is a former national cricketer and was been a mainstay of Windward Islands cricket for several years. He has gone on to represent the West Indies at the Twenty20 International level, playing two T20 Internals against England.
He also did a stint in England at the Marlow Cricket Club and spent a few years with the Islandwide Cricket Club in New York also as a player-coach.
Over the years he has coached several teams including his home team of Grass Street in the Mon Repos league where he has been player/ coach for many years. He has also been a player/coach for Victoria United in the Trinidad and Tobago semi-professional league.
Currently, Mathurin is the coach at the Centre for Excellence at Gros Islet and serves as an assistant coach with the Saint Lucia Zouks during the Caribbean Premier League tournament; working at improving the professionalism of the national team. The West Indies has recently published fitness requirements for all cricketers, and it’s the intention of the coach and his coaching staff to improve the general fitness levels of the entire team so that they can meet and exceed regional, and international fitness levels.
The newly appointed Saint Lucia national coach is also very focused on improving the general performance of the national team at the regional tournament, thereby allowing more Saint Lucians to play on the Windward’s team.
Mathurin will be assisted in his duties by another individual with extensive regional and international experience, Donald Albert. Dave, as he is more commonly known, has an extensive background working with Pakistan and more recently the Saint Lucia Zouks.
It is the intent of the Saint Lucia National Cricket Association to make the best use of their international experience and allow the players to harness that experience in their development.
Saint Lucia will be participating in the Windward Islands Goodwill senior men cricket tournament from April 17 – 25 in Grenada. Saint Lucia was in the cellar position in the last tournament in 2019, and the executive hopes that with the addition of these two individuals, there will be a gradual reversal of fortunes.
