When Brian Lara and Ian Bishop both speak highly of a batter, the Caribbean listens. And Alick Athanaze is beginning to show why. On a testing tour of Bangladesh, the young left-hander has impressed with his temperament, explosiveness and technique. In an exclusive chat with ‘Daily Times of Bangladesh’ in Chattogram, Athanaze opened up about learning to handle spin, adjusting to subcontinental conditions, and his ambition to become a genuine all-format player for the West Indies. Here are the excerpts
So far, how are you liking this tour? Must be a tough outing in Dhaka…
Yeah, I mean, obviously it was a challenge back in the other venue. But like you said, the wicket looks much better. I mean, it’s spun a bit, but nothing compared to the last wicket.
So that is a good sign. It’s more batting friendly, I would say. And it must be a new learning curve as well, playing in the subcontinent.
You’ve faced a variety of spin and surfaces here. How do you reflect on the learnings from this subcontinental tour?
I faced something similar in Pakistan, but it was a different format. So like you said, it’s obviously a learning curve for me. Yeah, and it’s nothing much. I mean, in the Caribbean, you don’t really get the ball to spin. I mean, you get the variety in bunks, but not as much spin as here.
Obviously, this is something that is new to us. And we’re eager and we’re looking forward to learning as much as we can to counteract their spin.
Growing up in the Caribbean, can you share a bit about your early years and how you transitioned into professional cricket?
I mean, it’s a bit tough coming from the Caribbean where you don’t get as much cricket.
And then coming to such a high level. But nevertheless, I mean, there’s no excuse. You still have to make the best of any situation. So I still think it is not really that tough a road. I think sometimes when you do get a tough start, it helps you develop and mature as a player.
How do you handle it when legends like Brian Lara call you the next big batting star from the Caribbean?
I guess it’s obviously big shoes to fill. But I try my best to stay away from social media, from all the talking. And I try my best to get knowledge from them and see how best I could, I guess, work on my game. Try to improve my game and live up to some of the names. But I mean, it’s not really something that I will pay attention to.
But obviously, they said they must have seen something in me that must have seen some promise. So it’s just about learning as fast as I can and adapting.
Even Bangladeshi bowlers have praised your technique, saying you could be a dangerous player for years to come. How does it feel to earn that kind of respect so early in your career?
To be honest, like you said, it’s mainly about runs for me. I mean, they just saw a glimpse of the technique and what I’m capable of. But for me, it’s mainly about big runs. My mind right now is conditioned to how I could go about scoring big runs. I haven’t gotten those big runs yet. I haven’t gotten a century yet.
And that is one of my biggest goals. So I think right now it’s just about me trying my best to formulate a game plan and try to do it as long as possible. Try to work on contact in different conditions and get mixed goals for my team and win games for them.
We rarely see three-format players these days. Do you aspire to be one for the West Indies, and how do you prepare for that challenge?
I want to be a three-format player. I want to be an all-format player. I also want to contribute a bit more to the ball. But the biggest thing for me is understanding how I could score in the shorter format of the game. I’m a stroke player amongst power hitters.
So the biggest thing for me is trying to understand my way of scoring and not trying to get sucked into how they go about scoring. So like I said earlier, it’s about formulating a game plan so that when I go in whatever format it is, I understand that this is where I score my runs and this is what I could do moving forward to better my game or to get more runs in different formats.
