By Avenash Ramzan
Describing Oshane Thomas’ Hero Caribbean Premier League exploits as “a pleasant surprise”, Jamaica Tallawahs Assistant Coach, Ramnaresh Sarwan, believes systems and structures must be set up across the region for such undoubted talents to prosper.
In an exclusive interview with News Room on Wednesday, Sarwan pointed to what is needed for players like Thomas to really fulfill their true potential.
“Like I’ve said before, one of the things we’ve been lacking in the Caribbean is having facilities in every territory and academy to help improve our players. I think that is something we need in the Caribbean so for someone like Oshane, as soon as the tournament finishes, he would obviously have a little break and you grab him and put him in the academy and you have the coaches working with him. Unfortunately, we don’t have that,” Sarwan stated.
Thomas has been impressive this season, rattling batsmen with his raw pace and hostility. The 21-year-old is the joint-leading wicket-taker of the tournament with 14 scalps, the same as his skipper Andre Russell.
One of the endearing images of the CPL this year is an unplayable yorker that dismantled the stumps of Shai Hope, and further underlined Thomas’ status as one for the future.
His bag of wickets includes some well-known exponents of the format: David Warner, Daren Sammy, Evin Lewis (twice), Dwayne Bravo and Martin Guptill.
In the absence of facilities/academies, Sarwan believes the Jamaican fast bowler is in good hands back home, and the input of officials there could catapult his career.
“What he has on his side is the fact that he has Robert Samuels and our manager (Andrew) Richardson, who are part of the Jamaica (Four-day and 50-over) team, and he plays for the same club, Melbourne I think it is. I’ve already spoken to Robert, and the manager has a lot of interest in terms of trying to help him; so I think he would be in good hands,” Sarwan revealed.
The former Guyana and West Indies captain, who only joined the franchise this year, said of Thomas: “I’ve never met him before; this was the first time, but I think he was a pleasant surprise to all of us. I saw him bowl in the nets when we were in Jamaica when we were there for the one week camp; he bowled quite a few quick balls.”
Sarwan, who captained the Guyana Amazon Warriors to the runner-up spot in the inaugural CPL in 2013 and later played for the Trinbago Knight Riders, said that based on reports from the coaching staff, Thomas has made significant progress since the last CPL.
“It’s pleasing to see a 21-year-old who is maturing quickly and trying to make progress,” the 38-year-old Sarwan posited.
Thomas will be part of the Tallawahs set-up on Saturday (September 8) when they face Guyana Amazon Warriors at Providence from 20:00h.