ST JOHN’S, Antigua (CMC) — Former West Indies captain and batting maestro, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, headlined a group of 17 coaches taking part in the first locally planned and delivered high-performance Cricket West Indies (CWI) coaching course.

Chanderpaul is one of six well-known players that are part of the group involved with the coaching course, which CWI, the sport’s regional governing body, said was part of its strategic plan to invest in building coaching depth and quality across the region.

Apart from Chanderpaul, the other well-known former players pursuing the coaching credentials are Ryan Austin, Rayad Emrit, Garey Mathurin, and Nikita Miller, and they are joined by still-active Guyana Jaguars left-handed batsman, Vishaul Singh.

CWI’s coach development manager, Chris Brabazon, said the programme will significantly enhance high-performance cricket across the region.

“This programme will provide a huge boost to the upper echelons of our West Indies cricket pathway,” he said in a CWI media release.

“By the end of our 12-month journey with these participants, we will have significantly added to our stable of local high-performance coaches.”

Brabazon worked with The University of the West Indies (UWI) over the past year to develop the level 3 coaching course.

He said the course will provide several of the region’s best coaches with opportunities to further learn and develop contemporary coaching philosophies and techniques that will allow them to thrive in the high-performance environment of the West Indies cricket pathway.

“This group will understand how the role of a high-performance coach continues to evolve and how they can best manage themselves and their resources to create the best high-performance environments possible for their players in their current role, while inspiring them to strive for the next step in their own coaching journey,” he said.

The coaching course, which started with an online induction last Sunday, will involve participants from across the region taking part in 12 months of course work via a blended learning approach.

The course will consist of online discussions, tutorials, and ongoing mentoring, as well as a face-to-face residential component to be held next month in Antigua.

In addition to the technical basics of elite cricket, topics will include programme management, sports psychology, leadership, communication, as well as visual technology and data analysis.

CWI’s high-performance staff in conjunction with The UWI tutors will deliver the course that provides participants with unprecedented access to best practice case studies and frameworks from the elite levels of West Indies cricket and beyond.

CWI said 497 new coaching certificates had been delivered across eight Caribbean countries in the past two years, including 81 at level 2, 116 at level 1, and 300 at foundation level.

The regional governing body said 16 coach developers have also been trained to deliver level 1 courses across the Caribbean.