King: 'There will be no settling in'

Bennett King: 'I certainly don't think there will be a honeymoon period' © Getty Images

Bennett King, whose appointment as West Indies' coach was finally confirmed on Sunday, almost a week after Cricinfo revealed that he had agreed to take on the role, has spoken of his belief that he can restore the side's fortunes.

"My charter is to make a famous national side get back into the headlines for all the right reasons," he told reporters. "Certainly in terms of international cricket it was an opportunity that was very hard to turn down. I have always said that the raw talent which the West Indies possesses is equal to any country in the world and I look forward to this assignment not least because it gives me a chance to aid in the development of players at all levels."

And King was clearly not under the impression that it would be an easy ride. "I certainly don't think there will be a honeymoon period," he admitted. "There will be no settling in. But you see some good things that are happening now, so it's not a bad time to be going in."

King's appointment has had a mixed reaction in the Caribbean, with some people very critical that the board decided to look outside the region for candidates. The consensus seems to be, however, that having made the decision, the new man should be given everyone's full support.

Teddy Griffith, the board's president, defended the thinking. "We had to look at the whole situation of the coach, and we decided that we wanted to throw our range abroad," he told the Jamaica Observer. "We thought it was very important to bring a new dynamic to the West Indies and it was necessary at this time, to get to a different outlook that would fit in terms of the overall situation.

"Our position is that where West Indies was before they won the ICC championship that the team needed an injection of a particular type and we thought that in the circumstances we should widen our search from the local situation."