Following Nikita Miller’s recent appointment with the West Indies men’s team, Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) president Dr Donovan Bennett says he expects more Jamaicans to be involved with the Caribbean team, while also emphasising the need to develop more coaches locally.

Miller, the former Jamaica and West Indies spinner, will be an assistant coach to Head Coach Andre Coley for the team’s upcoming Test series against Pakistan this month.

The 42-year-old reportedly impressed with his work with the bowlers during the West Indies second Test against Bangladesh at Sabina Park, which began on November 30.

Miller has had coaching stints at the regional level with the Jamaica Scorpions and the Trinbago Knight Riders in the Caribbean Premier League.

Bennett says Miller is deserving of the new role but says it wasn’t a shock.

“I’m happy for Nikita, not because he’s a Jamaican but because he evolved from the system that started from St Elizabeth Technical. I knew him as a 13-year-old boy coming through school, and stuff like that, so from that point of view, I’m happy for him,” Bennett told the
Jamaica Observer.

“Nikita has a lot of experience. He had a very long first-class career with over 500 wickets and had some time with the West Indies also, so based on his experience, I’m not surprised he’s been given this job.”

Miller joins Coley, Jimmy Adams and Courtney Walsh to have major coaching positions in the West Indies set-up in recent years. In the past, there was a belief that some territories were more favoured than others, but Bennett believes more opportunities will come due to the talent available locally.

“It’s all a part of the enlightened thinking at Cricket West Indies now. The board, and certainly the president, doesn’t look at where people come from. That’s not part of how he sees things,” he said.

“Wherever we can find the best people, we’re going to access those people; it doesn’t matter where they’re from. Whether that person comes from Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad or wherever, whatever assignment they may get is solely based on the perception as to how well they can do the job and nothing else,” he said.

Dr Bennett says the JCA is banking on the skill set of their current coaches including current senior men’s Head Coach Robert Haynes to help improve the current standard of coaching and playing on the island.

“We have a set-up now where we have a cadre of coaches; we have coaches at the senior level, junior level and female level. The plan isn’t for them to remain stationary in any particular area of coaching. What I’m trying to say is that you’ll find that [senior men’s coach] Robert Haynes in the off season will go down and help the junior players and work with the junior coaches and so on,” he said.

“It will be a dynamic process where coaches move up and down the system so that they can not only learn from each other but the players will [also] have the benefit of various coaches of various levels coaching them at a particular point in time.”

Bennett also says developing youth and junior coaches locally will be critical in 2025.

“What we intend to do in the current year is to train a lot of level one coaches in the primary and high schools because we have this islandwide under-13 programme going, we have primary school competitions going and for the most part, these schools are devoid of coaches, so what we intend to do is train as many coaches as we can so that these schools will be in a position where they at least have someone who can coach the basic things of the game,” he said.