Hinds and King axed for final Test

Tino Best last played for West Indies during the England tour of 2004 © Getty Images

Ryan Hinds and Reon King have been dropped as West Indies try to limit the damage of a series they have already lost in the fourth and final Test against South Africa starting in Antigua on Friday. West Indies were thrashed by an innings and 86 runs to concede the series last week, and the selectors have asked Narsingh Deonarine and Tino Best to help the recovery.

Best, the fast bowler, played his last Test against England in July 2004 while Deonarine gets his second opportunity after making his debut in the first match of the current series, scoring 15 not out at No. 6. Hinds, who missed the second Test with a viral illness, was given another break after posting 10 and 15, and King, who took six wickets in the series, was dumped after collecting only one as South Africa piled on 548 for 9 declared.

"We hope to salvage something from this series," said Joey Carew, West Indies convenor of selectors. "Some people are advocating sweeping changes but that policy has never proven to be successful." He added that the batsmen, apart from Brian Lara who scored 389 runs in the past two Tests, were disappointing and did not live up to expectations on a good batting wicket at Bridgetown. "What we are looking to do is to improve the fitness and conditioning, both mental and physical, of the players to ensure that they are able to contend with the demands of the modern game."

The worries over fitness were highlighted when Bryce Cavanagh, the side's new strength and conditioning co-ordinator, put them through their paces on Monday. "One of the problems with these blokes is that they fatigue in the last three days of a Test, especially the fifth day," he said. "One of the things that I want to do is to be able to improve their aerobic capacity, get them fitter, so that in the last couple days they can be competitive."

West Indies Chris Gayle, Wavell Hinds, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Brian Lara, Shivnarine Chanderpaul (capt), Narsingh Deonarine, Dwayne Bravo, Courtney Browne (wk), Daren Powell, Dwight Washington, Fidel Edwards, Tino Best.