King warns against no-balls

Bennett King, the West Indies coach, has cautioned his bowlers against bowling no-balls in the second Test in Trinidad starting tomorrow. In the first Test, the West Indies fast bowlers gave away 38 runs in no-balls and failed to bowl out South Africa on the last day, but King has placed confidence in his bowlers to dismiss South Africa twice in the next Test.

"They're not just a coach's nightmare. They are a player's nightmare too. The players themselves don't want to go out there and bowl no-balls," King was quoted as saying in The Nation News. "In our five-day camp, that was one of the things that we worked very hard on. No-one bowled a no-ball in all the centre-wicket practices. With all the work that we did, I was really disenchanted, but it doesn't dishearten me, because I know that's an area we can improve on."

The inexperienced bowlers skittled out the South African batting line-up in the first innings. Expressing confidence in them, "We've got four of them," King said. "We've got a couple of others in the wings, so you know, that's their job, that's their responsibility, and you shouldn't really need any more than four. What we've got, that's who's going to get them."

King also said that the return of Brian Lara, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo would strengthen the batting line-up. The players returned to the side after they terminated their individual contracts with Cable and Wireless, and thereby made themselves eligible for selection. Following this, Brian Lara, who earlier rejected the board's invitation to join the team, also made himself available for the South Africa series.

"They've played a lot of international cricket and obviously their records are very strong, which is one of the reasons why they're in," King was quoted as saying by The Trinidad Express. "They've performed really well, so we're expecting a better performance from a batting perspective, but their experience and knowledge of international cricket should also be a benefit to us."

West Indies performed above expectations in the first Test in Guyana, with double-centuries from Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the present captain, and Wavell Hinds. The inexperienced bowlers too skittled out the South African batting line-up in the first innings.

King has placed confidence in his bowlers to dismiss South Africa twice in the second Test. "We've got four of them," King said. "We've got a couple of others in the wings, so you know, that's their job, that's their responsibility, and you shouldn't really need any more than four. What we've got, that's who's going to get them."

King also indicated that Lara, who lacked match practice, appeared a bit scratchy in the nets. "He (Lara) probably looked a bit scratchy at first," King said, "but with experienced players they don't really need too much time, and my experience has told me, one to two hours and they are ready to play a game of cricket because of their experience, and how many balls they have hit in the past."

King has tipped Bravo as one of the key figures during the match. "Dwayne hit some pretty good areas for us today. Obviously he hasn't had a long bowling stint in the middle, but his general fitness is always good, so we're expecting him to be one of the front-runners when we bowl."

Ryan Hinds, who has fallen ill, will miss out the second Test beginning tomorrow, and has been replaced by Donovan Pagon, who made his debut in the Guyana Test last week.