By Neto Baptiste
Leeward Islands and West Indies leg-spinner, Hayden Walsh Jr, is not bothered by what some considers his below-par performance in the recently concluded Caribbean Premier League (CPL) in which represented the Barbados Tridents.
Walsh Jr, who finished the 2019 instalment of the CPL as man of the tournament with 22 wickets, managed only seven wickets in his 10 matches this year with a best of three for 19.
“I would agree that the results really didn’t go my way but I was still quite satisfied with the way I was consistent but as I said, you can’t win all of them all of the time so it really was a good learning opportunity and a good learning tournament,” he said.
In the Tridents’ clash against the Trinbago Knight Riders, Walsh had figures of 44 for one in four overs after he suffered from a brutal attack by West Indies and Tridents captain, Kieron Pollard.
Walsh then returned the next game to claim his best figures of the tournament of three for 19.
“That one game or that one over doesn’t determine who I am as a leg-spinner or cricketer on a whole, so I always try to get back on my feet because my father always taught me that cricket and life goes hand in hand. So, it is just like life — when you fall down today, we still have to get back up the next day and keep going again,” he said.
Walsh said he continues to work at improving his game, including his much admired fielding abilities.
“My fielding is a very big part of my game, so I am always looking to improve that aspect so when people look at me or say my name, they are going to say ‘hey, this man was a very god fielder’. In my preparations, I just try to stay fit but I always try to make my drills as realistic to the game as possible where I would have somebody cutting a ball to point or I’d be on the boundary running around, diving and catching balls and just trying to be as specific as possible to the game,” the Antiguan player said.
Walsh is included the region’s T20 squad set to tour New Zealand from next month. The teams will play three T20 Internationals with the first on November 27. The second and third matches will be contested on November 29-30.
The two Test matches will be on December 3-7 and December 11-15.