THOUGH Jamaica Under-19 Head Coach Robert Haynes is expecting slow pitches in St Vincent and the Grenadines, he believes accurate fast bowling could still have an impact during the Regional Under-19 tournament.

“From my experience, the wickets there have been pretty slow and I could really say that throughout the Caribbean the spinners have been dominating in first-class cricket and regional Under-19 cricket,” he told the Jamaica Observer yesterday ahead of the presentation of the Raewin Senior-captained squad at Sabina Park in the afternoon.

“I’m not expecting anything too quick in St Vincent, but what is important is that I have to get the fast bowlers to bowl certain lines and certain lengths. At the end of the day it’s not just the [fast] pace, it’s the consistency,” added Haynes, a former Jamaica wrist spinner.

He noted that scouting the country’s fast-bowling talent and staging a camp were fruitful exercises.

“It (fast bowling scouting) went very well and we identified quite a few of them, not just for this year, but also for next year.”

Under Haynes’ guidance, Jamaica ended second to Guyana in the three-day format last season, but were never in contention in the 50-over competition.

Haynes, who played One-Day International cricket for the West Indies, explained that a different approach in preparation was taken this season.

“So far the preparation has gone fairly well, though we would have liked more days in terms of coaching cricket. The days we have had, we have been working very well with coaches including myself, Shane Brooks, Junior Bennett and manager Gibbs Williams, who is a Level Three coach also taking part.

“Physically, the guys are getting there and we’ve put more emphasis on the fitness of the players. Last year I think we came second because we weren’t as fit as we should have been and the last game we struggled somewhat in terms of fitness. We decided that this year we had to spend a lot more time working on the physical aspect of the cricket.

“We are also doing more mental work in terms of game sense scenarios to get the guys to understand what it is they need to do. I’m very pleased with the performance in practice games — batsmen are scoring hundreds and bowlers are getting four- and five-wicket hauls,” said the Jamaica Under-19 head coach.

Jamaica’s delegation is scheduled to leave the island July 31 and should arrive on August 1. The team’s opening game is set to be against Barbados on August 3.

Jamaica squad: Raewin Senior (captain), Kymani Wilson (wicketkeeper), Kirk McKenzie, Bryan Brown, Carlos Brown, Andre McCarthy, Dominik Samuels, Geordae Seymour, Roberto Simpson, Sanjay Brown, Sanjay Williams, Michael Meggs, Andre Blake, Ricardo McIntosh.

Reserves— Shemar Davis, Koby Henry, Romario Halstead, Nickary Johnson.

Head coach: Robert Haynes

Manager: Gibbs Williams