Ideal time to elevate Sarwan, says Cozier

Bennett King has a familiar story to tell when he reports on his latest assignment to Ken Gordon, West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) president, Joey Carew, convenor of selectors, and Clive Lloyd, recently-appointed head of the cricket committee, in Antigua today, less than 24 hours after his return.

The tour of New Zealand that ended with the rain-ruined third Test in Napier on Wednesday was the head coach's fourth overseas, following two to Australia and one to Sri Lanka last year. Like the others, it ended in defeat and disappointment.

The main reasons would have been obvious to Gordon and his colleagues from what they saw through the television coverage and read from comments on tour by King himself, captain Shivnarine Chanderpaul and some of the other players, not least the most experienced, Brian Lara.

The failure of the middle-order batting, notably the key men, Chanderpaul and Lara, inappropriate shot selection and missed catches at critical moments led to the narrow defeat in the first Test and contributed to the comprehensive loss in the second. The injuries that reduced Dwayne Bravo's allround capacity to batting and fielding alone and confined Jerome Taylor to nine overs in his only Test were also significant setbacks.

Above all, as Lara observed at the end, the continuing lack of mental toughness undermined the effort against efficient, but hardly overwhelming, opponents in both Tests and one-day internationals. The outcome in New Zealand also ensures that the issue of leadership is high on the agenda, not only at today's meeting but at selectorial and board level in the coming weeks.

Decisions have to be taken on the captaincy and, following the review by the committee headed by Jackie Hendriks, the coaching. Chanderpaul is not the first captain to endure such a prolonged period of failure but none has been so unsuited to the role or so uncomfortable in it.

Until thrust into the position by the contentious circumstances of last year, his cricket was focused exclusively on batting, on accumulating runs, however, they came, on substance rather than style. His record attests to his success.

Quiet to the point of introversion, he did not have to concern himself with determining tactics or mastering the skills necessary to communicate with his players and the media. It was too much to expect him to suddenly grasp such complexities, especially at such a turbulent time in West Indies cricket.

He has tried his best, as he always does, but the demands have become such a burden they have undermined his confidence and severely affected his batting, his one, abiding passion. Since the Sri Lanka series last July, when the leading players deserted him, his stance has become more awkwardly front-on as he has gone 14 Test innings without a half-century.

They are statistics that undermine his authority and enough for him to be relieved of the weight and worry of leadership so that he can get back to doing what he does best, score runs. The sooner the decision is made to elevate vice-captain Ramnaresh Sarwan to the position, the better to end negative speculation.

The seven successive ODIs against a weakened Zimbabwe are next on the West Indies' schedule, an ideal introduction for a new, younger skipper. Throughout New Zealand, King and his all-Australian staff remained under the cloud of the Hendriks committee's report and the inevitable rumours that followed the release of its findings.

The head coach's presentation today will be inevitably made against this background of uncertainty, even given the committee's conclusion that "there was not sufficient evidence to work with in determining whether the investment in the coaching staff had paid dividends" and its subsequent recommendation that they be given "more opportunity before a further evaluation is made".

In his debriefing, King will find difficulty in explaining how, in two of the ODIs and, more frustratingly, in the first Test, probable victory slipped rapidly from the grasp of a team consumed by the powerful insecurity of years of failure.

In the second ODI, New Zealand were 49 for the loss of the top five yet they breezed past the 201 needed to win with three wickets and eight overs to spare. In the third, the West Indies were 127 for two after 20 overs going after 277. Two wickets in the 21st over transformed that position into eventual defeat by 21 runs.

The mental meltdown was most pronounced and momentous in the first Test. At 150 for seven in their second innings, New Zealand were 168 ahead and down to the keeper and the bowlers. They rallied to add 122 after Daniel Vettori was dropped at four.

It meant the West Indies were left 291 to win but an opening partnership of 148 between Chris Gayle and Daren Ganga set the foundations for a result that would have been an enormous boost to the team's confidence. It came to nothing as Nos.3 to 7 contributed 36 between them. The margin of defeat was 27.

Yet what King will have to report today is not all gloom and doom. There was the continuing development and strengthening of Fidel Edwards as a genuine strike bowler.

Against widespread scepticism that the task of taking 20 wickets in a match is beyond the limited bowling attack, it did so in the first Test, as it had done in the two at home against Pakistan last season, and would have been more effective with better support in the field.

At last, Gayle and Ganga provided more solid starts than other pairs had managed for some time (47, 148, 43, 54 and 37 against 20, 11, 12, 4, 16 and 2 in the previous series in Australia). And, not to be underestimated, the coach can rightly point out that there were definite advances in moulding a team ethic among the players, many of whom were on opposite sides in the bitter standoff between the WICB and the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) only a few months earlier.

There was an unmistakeable camaraderie off the field, especially among the many younger members, that is an encouraging sign for the future. The problem, of course, is that it hasn't reflected in the results.