BRIDGETOWN, Barbados — Robert Samuels has joined the Sagicor West Indies High Performance Centre as an assistant coach.

The former Jamaica captain and West Indies opening batsman recently completed a stint as assistant coach of the West Indies Under-19 team and said he is delighted by his continued involvement in West Indies cricket.

“This is the first time I have been working with elite players at this level — with the Under-19s and now at the Sagicor High Performance Centre. The experience was very good working with Roddy Estwick in the Under-19 team and it has really opened my eyes,” Samuels said.

“Here, at the Sagicor HPC is something I have always wanted to do… working with a group of quality players and based in one place… having players come to you, splitting the time in morning and afternoon sessions and being hands-on.”

Samuels, the brother of Windies batsman Marlon, has worked with junior players for over a decade and earlier this year was at the helm when Jamaica won both the Regional Under-19 three-day and one-day tournaments.

He will be working with the students of the Sagicor HPC for a month and will then travel with the West Indies Under-19s to Bangladesh, where they are slated to play seven 50-over matches in December.

“I am very tactical when it comes to cricket. I love the basics of cricket. I love to look at players’ techniques and see how we can tweak techniques and help the players to improve and get better. I enjoy doing the basics of cricket and trying to get better players better,” Samuels said.

The 42-year-old played six Test matches for West Indies in the mid-to-late 1990s when he was also one of the leading batsmen in regional cricket. He made a Test-best score of 125 against New Zealand at the Antigua Recreational Ground, in 1996.