The programme will last for three months and 24 players will be accepted each year with the primary aim being to develop their cricket, to further their education, and according to Dr. Webster, the four cornerstones will be fitness, technique, tactics and strategy, and mental skills. The academy will have a core group of coaches, it will bring in specialists for batting, bowling, fielding and wicketkeeping, and as far as education is concerned, the programme will be tailored to suit the needs, the capabilities, of the players. Some players may not be able to do what others can do, but we will tailor the programme to the individual needs, and this is something which the university does fairly well. We recognise this is going to be a problem with some of the guys. When you can't read and write properly, it affects your confidence level and we are going to make sure we work on that in order to help them.
Confidence is key to performance.
Speaking on that subject, Barry Collymore, director of public affairs at the university, said the St. George's University was equipped to deal with that problem. The university is an international institution with students from 54 countries and we have a department which is designed to assist students. It is remedial, and because we have so many students who speak a different languages and who therefore do not have a good grasp of English, we have programmes which get students up to speed with the language in a very short time. That can easily be applied to players who have deficiencies in English - in reading writing and so on. The players will also be involved in leadership training and, according to Roger Braithwaite, Shell's retail sales support manager for the Eastern Caribbean, Shell will be assisting with that.