Bennet King should be out
THE EDITOR: So someone has finally had the courage to mention that the King is naked. Bennet King came into his job highly recommended and with much fanfare. The entire population was led to believe that he was the man to turn our cricket fortunes around. He was given full autonomy for his training schedule and team selection. Yet with so much more resources and authority than his last two predecessors, his results are much worse than theirs. I venture to say that in any other test-playing country in the world today, with those results, Mr King would have been sent packing. And if you don’t believe me you can ask Gordon Greenidge or Phil Simmons. In true Third World fashion, however, we have appointed a committee to inquire into the matter. The results are there for all to see. The only thing this committee needs to do is interview players to determine from their standpoint, what impact Mr King’s coaching has had on their game and whether in their opinion our money is being well spent. Some people have already rushed to his defence claiming that his coaching was adversely affected by the players’ dispute. I would like to remind them that during Mr King’s tenure, the best performance of his team was when he went to Sri Lanka with a second string team. I noticed that even the WICB president is trying to defend the gentleman by alluding to ‘‘endemic problems,’’ but of course, he did not elaborate. If however he sees this letter, I would like him to do the following: Firstly, get from his statisticians the scores of our batsmen numbers seven - 11 over the last five years (both test and one-day) and compare it with all other countries in the game. Secondly, look at the scores that batsmen at that same level have made against us. The fact of the matter is that our very mediocre bowlers have been taking no responsibility in making a contribution with the bat, and worse than that they are giving away a batsman’s score in extras! Of course good line and length remain an illusive ideal. Let us reflect on some of the best bowlers in the game today: Shane Warne, Muttia Muralathian, Glen McGrath, Harbajan Singh, Paul Collingwood, Heath Streak, Daniel Vittori, Shoaib Aktar, and others, these very good bowlers all have test half centuries to their names and some even centuries. Should Mr King have addressed this problem alone, we would have been given a much better account of ourselves. RAY RAMDEEN San Fernando
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"Bennet King should be out"