Sport

Appoint top coach now

LAST year the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) tried to get Australian Bennett King to become the first foreigner to coach the regional Test team.

The move failed.

King, after being named, turned down the offer and remained with his job as one of the top coaches at the Australian Cricket Academy.

The West Indies were left with Augustine Logie (named then as King's deputy) and the regional team but for a hard-fought series win over lowly Zimbabwe, have been losing ever since.

Without delay

The WICB must, without delay, seek to have a qualified international coach in charge of the regional team before they tour England this summer.

Help is needed and fast. It is clear to all who wish to see it that the region does not have the expertise to tackle the leading world cricket powers like Australia, South Africa, India and now England. Cricket is now a 'high-tech' game and the West Indies are dropping further behind with each passing day.

The team needs a qualified manager-coach, like England's Duncan Fletcher, who will take charge of all aspects of the game much like Rene Simoes did for Jamaica's Reggae Boyz in the run-up to qualification for France in 1998.

Free hand

This manager-coach should be given a free hand in matters of team discipline and have a strong say in team selection to over-ride the insularity which has plaqued the regional team for many years.

Recent videos of West Indies pacers bowling no-ball after no-ball in the nets is a case in point. A strong manager-coach would have laid down the law to the players long ago.

The West Indies slide has to be halted. World Cup 2007 will be coming to the region in under three years and all the big plans about building special arenas for cricket will remain on the drawing board if the West Indies are not performing well.

Here in Jamaica there was a recent raging debate about whether Sabina Park or Greenfield in Trelawny should be the venue for World Cup cricket. Nothing has been heard in recent weeks from those who are responsible for choosing the venue or venues.

Sabina's favour

It is my view that the current form of the regional team will weigh heavily in favour of Sabina Park, the traditional Test cricket arena, as no-one is going to make a heavy investment on a new venue when the regional team is registering 'new lows' everytime they go to the wicket.

With the form the West Indies have been showing it is not difficult to predict what will happen in the final Test. All subsequent events have proven that the world record second innings winning score against Australia at the Antigua Recreation Ground last year was little more than a fluke and unlikely to be repeated.

The bowlers looked very good in Barbados but they were not backed up by the batsmen and the West Indies lost in three days.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul has been dropped but none of the two players who are likely to replace him, Ricardo Powell and Sylvester Joseph, have shown that they can do any better.

England, 3-0 up in the four-Test series, are odds-on to make it a 4-0 sweep. Only a miraculous turnaround or extremely bad weather can stop them.