BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC:
WEST INDIES Cricket Board (WICB) president Teddy Griffith has defended the hiring of Australian Bennett King as the new coach of the West Indies cricket team.
Griffith told CMC Sport after the final of the regional one-day tournament on Sunday, that he believes the employing of an overseas coach would bring a new dynamic to the Windies team.
The former head of the Australian Cricket Academy was awarded a three-year contract as the coach of the Windies side.
WIDENING THE COPE
"The board had taken the decision that we had to look at the whole situation of the coach, and we decided that we wanted to throw our range abroad.
"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."
Griffith also added that the board had no animosity to coaches from the region but because of the previous record of regional coaches, it was thought they needed to widen their search.
"We have West Indian coaches since Rohan Kanhai and they have had various elements of success.
"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."
Barbadian Tony Howard has been retained as manager of the squad and the legendary Sir Garfield Sobers, who has been appointed the technical consultant, will join the 39-year-old King.
Sobers follows in the footsteps of another great player, India's Sunil Gavaskar, who has been drafted in a similar position to the Indian team.
PRESIDENT SATISFIED
The president was also happy with the staging of the regional tournament this year.
"I am satisfied that we are on the right direction, we had a very good all round competition despite not being able to play the extended situation as we wanted to, because of the hurricane problems in Grenada, but at the end of the day all out expectations were ulfilled."
The tournament had been scheduled to have two stages of preliminary competition but the second leg, slated for Grenada, had to be cancelled.
