Daniel: Bowlers key to World Cup success

Length is your strength and your line must be fine.

That's Wayne Daniel's advice to the West Indies bowlers ahead of the World Cup in South Africa.

Daniel, a former Barbados and West Indies fast bowler from the glory days of the 1970s and 80s, believes that if the bowlers come up short the Windies could struggle badly.

"The pitches will be helpful and the ball will move around and bounce quite a bit," he said yesterday.

"The bowlers will get assistance, but if you're bowling the wrong length and a poor line it could make scoring quite easy.

"No matter how much help you get, you still have to put the ball in the right place."

Daniel, who celebrates his 47th birthday today, played ten Tests, between 1976 and 1983, and 18 One-Day Internationals.

He said he was not sure the West Indies had the necessary firepower among its six fast bowlers to do the trick.

"Yes, you need firepower but it must be quality firepower, of the calibre of a Glenn McGrath or a Shane Bond. It simply depends on the quality.

"In One-Day cricket you need bowlers who can bowl consistently in one place and one line and set a field for them," said Daniel.

"Somehow I don't think we have it. We have a young bowler who is promising in [Jermaine] Lawson. [Merv] Dillon is not tearaway and still struggles with line and length. [Corey] Collymore and [Vasbert] Drakes can bowl a decent line, but they're just medium.

"Pedro [Collins] has been bowling well and he has improved tremendously, and is now a very good bowler. We'll have to see how he does."

Daniel, who played in the 1983 World Cup, said he was not sure about the form of Nixon McLean, who had been recalled after two years in the wilderness.

"I have not seen him for a long time, and we knew his line was all over the place and length atrocious in the past," he said.

"Whether he has improved a great deal, I don't know. I somehow don't think he is going to play a great deal, unless someone gets injured, but he's in the party, so they must be seeing something in him.

"It is vitally important that we bowl well. You might start the final over needing 15 or 20 runs to win and it might look like a lot, but we have seen in the past that if the bowler is ragged the runs can be made."

Daniel asserted that Carl Hooper's side must be up to the mark from the word "go" when they face South Africa at the Newlands, in Cape Town, on February 9.

"In the World Cup teams will be playing to the optimum and even above their peak and playing out of their skin. You have to really go in from the start with your team in top form and firing from all cylinders. Nothing less would do."

West Indies are grouped in Pool "B" with hosts South Africa, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Kenya and Canada.