BASSETERRE, St. Kitts-DURING the recently held warm-up matches at Warner Park for January’s ICC U-19 World Cup, St. Kitts’ young cricketers were given the opportunity to improve their fielding techniques under professional English coach Julien Fountain.
Fountain is a world renowned cricket fielding expert who has coached international teams such as West Indies, Stanford Superstars, Englan and Pakistan in the art of blending cricket and baseball fielding techniques.
Though his time in St. Kitts-Nevis was brief, Fountain worked with the West Indies U-19 and Canada U-19 teams, as well as the youths from the Juni Mitchum Cricketing School of Excellence.
Mitchum spoke to SKNVibes and said Fountain brought an abundance of knowledge that could vitalize fielding within St. Kitts-Nevis’ young cricketers.
“The fielding aspect of cricket has evolved so rapidly over the years that the things we used to do before and think were good…are no longer really effective in terms of how the game has transformed. He brought some new things on board that allowed the players to make fielding more exciting, fun and challenging for the players,” Mitchum said.
Among the techniques taught by Fountain were body positioning and fluidity in footwork. Mitchum added that the blend of baseball and cricket Fountain teaches has many benefits for young sportsmen and women.
“Once ago, we used to throw the ball from low to high which was a risk to our shoulders, especially the rotor cup. The new technique they are using now is basically a baseball style throwing technique where you throw from high to low and it saves you the injury in terms of damaging your shoulder and elbow.
“It also allows you to throw the ball more accurately and with more pace on the ball,” he stated.
The overhand throwing technique is also believed to increase accuracy from longer distances, which Mitchum said would assist the cricketers in “making run outs, saving boundaries, saving singles and putting pressure on the batters”.
He added his hope that bringing in coaches like Fountain would improve the Federation’s chances of finally producing a Test player for the West Indies.
“I would just like to really thank Mr. Fountain for his time and imparting his knowledge unto the kids, and also to continue thanking the kids and their parents for their assistance and participation,” Mitchum said.
