King has no plans to tinker with WI game

BRIDGETOWN: New West Indies coach Bennett King, embracing the traditional style of West Indies cricket, says he does not plan to alter the typical Caribbean approach to the game. Instead, the Australian —  in his first week with the West Indies side on their pre-tour camp —  plans to maximise the potential of the team by simply making the players do what they do better.  “I certainly don’t want to change their style, but I certainly want them to play that style in a much more effective and meaningful way,” King told reporters after a session at the 3Ws Oval at the university’s Cave Hill Campus.

The West Indies rose to the top of world cricket —  in the late 1970s —  with a confident, forceful and often flashy approach to the game and King admires those qualities. “Just a wonderfully aggressive, flowing attacking style of cricket that they play, I expect them to keep moving that way because that’s what wins you cricket matches,” King said.  “Over the next few weeks and over the next few years hopefully, we can see that style improve,” King said.  King, the first foreign coach ever employed by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), has a three-year contract that takes the Caribbean side into the 2007 World Cup, when they stage the premier international cricket tournament.

“The West Indies are seen as a side that has brought a lot of entertainment and enjoyment, not just to the Caribbean but around the world, so that’s the task to make it attractive, aggressive, positive and hopefully the players are the ones that will get the reward for it,” King said. Uncertainty over King’s relationship with technical consultant Sir Garfield Sobers, who had publicly voiced disapproval of a foreign coach being employed, appeared to be allayed this week when both men expressed compatibility at the camp. King said that Sir Garfield’s enterprising methods while he was a player remain present in his outlook on the game today and he believes current players can benefit from exposure to the great man’s thinking.

“That style he played when he was playing is one that needs to be engendered in players everywhere I think, he played to try and win every time and I am strong on trying to win cricket matches, he was very innovative and creative and knew the things that he could do, so those are messages I would like him to pass on to the players. “Gary when he was playing was a person ahead of his time in my opinion, and it certainly is flowing through now because he still thinks creatively about cricket and his knowledge is just there waiting to be picked,” King said.

King also had a sharp response to questions about any nationalistic conflicts —  as an Australian —  he may have coaching traditional rivals West Indies.  “Not at all, my responsibilities lie solely with the side that I am coaching,” he said.   The 39-year-old King comes to the coaching position with a successful record.  Before his Caribbean assignment, he was head of the Commonwealth Bank Cricket Academy in Australia, the leading institution of its kind in the cricket world. He joined the academy after guiding the Australian State team Queensland to three consecutive championships from 1999/2000 to 2001/2002. The three-week camp, in preparation for the VB triangular one-day series with Pakistan and hosts Australia in January-February, is completing its first week today. (CMC)