KIERAN Powell could be set to face England next month having scored three centuries in his last four matches, but one of the men behind the West Indian’s revival has been coaching him from Cardiff.
Powell, who once scored two centuries in the same Test, has been piling on the runs for the Leeward Islands in the Regional Super50, where Kent are also playing. Indeed, the 26-year-old smashed 106 against Sam Northeast, Darren Stevens and Co this week.
But having struggled a few weeks ago, Powell was left searching his contacts and coming across former Glamorgan coach Toby Radford, who gave the left-hander some tips.
Radford, who is West Indies current batting and assistant coach to Stuart Law, told The Cricket Paper: “Kieran Powell and I go back a long way. When I first set up the high-performance centre in the West Indies, Kieran was on that first intake. We worked together when he was in the main West Indies side too.
“I went out to the Leeward Islands last year and caught up with him then but out of the blue, two weeks ago, he sent me a message asking if we can do some work together.
“I’m going out there anyway for the England tour soon, but he wanted to send me some clips.
“So he filmed himself batting in the nets, sent me a few different bunches of clips and I looked at them. They were a few technical issues that we went over a few years back, and he’s just falling back into old habits.
“The following morning we video-called on Skype and I gave him a few technical tips and put him back on the drills we used to do. He’s taken them on board and can’t stop scoring runs since.”
So Radford, 45, is already helping the West Indies in their quest to beat England next month with the Three Lions visiting the Caribbean for three ODIs at the beginning of March.
The former Middlesex and Sussex batsman added: “There’s lots of cricket for West Indies to look forward to. I toured with the West Indies when we were here a few years back. I really enjoy it and you just take on whoever you need to as a job.”
This piece originally featured in The Cricket Paper, February 10 2017
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