RYAN HINDS is taking his omission from the West Indies team for next month’s Test tour of Sri Lanka in stride.
“I’ve been working really hard for the last few months. My bowling has come on by leaps and bounds and I’ve been batting very well,” he told NATIONSPORT in a wide-ranging interview.
“I think it is important that I focus on performing and that’s what I will continue to do in the next couple of months,” he said.
Having not been able to cement a place in the regional side, Hinds, 29, believes the experience he has gained over the years should help the team.
“I’ve been around for a very long time now – 12 years – and I think it is very important that my experience should benefit the team,” he said.
“Being the captain, I need to lead from the front and I’ve been doing that so far with both bat and ball.”
Hinds added that the team spirit during the championship in Jamaica was excellent, with former West Indies opener Desmond Haynes playing an important role as manager.
“It’s not all about me. I thought that the background staff, the manager and the coaches, they have been very supportive and we have a very good team bond,” he said.
Hinds led Barbados to second places in this year’s first-class championship and the inaugural WICB Twenty20, and a share of the Regional 50-Over title, and he believes they should be considered as the top team in the region.
“I still believe Barbados is the best team in the Caribbean.
“While we have now won the One-Day tournament, sharing the title with the Leewards, we have been very competitive in all formats,” he said.
Hinds is among an elite group of regional cricketers with more than 6 000 runs and 200 wickets in first-class cricket.
In 110 matches, the left-hander has amassed 6 270 runs at an average of 39.18 with 11 first-class centuries.
He has also taken 211 wickets at 26.74, including a regional best innings haul of nine for 68.
He was the top bowler in the just ended 2010 WICB Regional One-Day Championship in Jamaica with 14 wickets at an average of 9.50 and an economy rate of 2.95 runs an over.
Noteworthy
However, he did not quite fire with the bat, managing a solitary half-century in four innings.
Despite modest returns in 15 Tests and 14 One-Day Internationals, Hinds surprisingly played his last ODI in England in 2004 when he was 23 years old, as part of the triumphant West Indies Champions Trophy team.
It is noteworthy that he has had only nine ODI innings, thrice coming not out while batting at No. 7 and thrice at No. 8.
In his first and only innings at No. 4, Hinds made 16 not out against Zimbabwe, while in his lone knock at No. 5, he made 18 not out versus New Zealand.
Such statistics will show that he rarely got a chance to showcase his batting ability in the shorter version of the game.
He marked his Test debut a few weeks before his 21st birthday with a knock of 62 in Sharjah in 2002 against a Pakistan bowling attack with the likes of Waqar Younis, Shoaib Akhtar, Abdul Razzaq, Danish Kaneria and Saqlain Mushtaq. His highest Test score is 84 versus England in 2004.