Call for express pace

West Indies coach Roger Harper has a need a need for speed.

The former West Indies off-spinner turned coach isn't a politician, but he's on a serious campaign to find legitimate pacers to replace Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh, and also return the regional side to cricket's heights through fiery fast bowling.

Harper noted the Windies' lack of firepower was conspicuous on the just concluded tour of Sri Lanka, where they lost two Tests despite some big scores and eventually succumbed 3-0.

We could have done much better in the Tests with the kind of positions we reached when we batted. But it clearly proves again that bowlers win Test matches, Harper told the Daily Nation on Saturday, after he and manager Ricky Skerritt arrived in Barbados, en route to Guyana and St Kitts, respectively.

We didn't bowl well at all in the Tests, and allowed Sri Lanka to take control with their batting, he added.

Harper denied that tour officials spent too much time concentrating on Sri Lanka's world-class spinner Muttiah Muralitharan and pacer Chaminda Vaas.

We knew their play would have been key to the series, but we still tried to work on other areas, the coach said.

He noted that all West Indies batsmen have to seriously improve the way they play the moving ball, and not just reverse spin.

When you play Test cricket, spin is spin. We just have to prepare better for the moving ball, but that remains tough because we are not known for producing swing bowlers.

It will be a very difficult thing to simulate, so we have a tough time ahead of us.

But according to Harper, it's not just finding quality express pacers and improving the batsmen's ability to play against quality spinners that will save West Indies cricket.

We have to look at each area and work at the entire development of West Indies cricket.

The Busta tournament should be the place where we fine-tune such development, but the standard there needs to be higher, the former West Indies vice-captain noted.

But the first thing we have to do is start a serious campaign in looking for bowlers.

We have to find players with the right build and athleticism, then harness that into the rudiments of fast bowling.

Skerritt also bemoaned the lack of stability in the team's bowling line-up since the retirement of Walsh and Ambrose.

There's been no stability at all. We've used 17 or 18 bowlers in the last 18 months for whatever reasons, so no players have been able to constantly keep their place and be in a position to improve gradually, he said.