Tony Becca, Contributor

THE REIGN of Bennett King is over, and the less said about it, the better.

As a person, King was a nice man. As a cricket coach, however, he was not all that good - if in fact, he was any good. Listening to the players, and almost to the man, while he may have been good as a fitness expert, he certainly was no good as a coach.

While all that may be biased, the fact of the matter is that King's time in the West Indies and with the West Indies team made no difference to the performance of the West Indies team.

When King arrived in the West Indies, they were near the foot of the ladder and ahead of only Zimbabwe and Bangladesh in the ICC rankings. After nearly three years, they are still in the same position.

When King arrived in the West Indies, but for a few innings here and there, the West Indies were dependent on Brian Lara, and as far as batting is concerned, they are, or were, still dependent on the great left-hander.

When King arrived in the West Indies, the West Indies, with bat and ball and in the field, were brilliant here and there, they were embarrassing more often than not, and today nothing has changed. They are still brilliant one day and embarrassing for the next many days.

In other words, while three years, or close to that, may not have been a long time, while the quarrels over money and the players' strikes which robbed the team of its top players from time to time must have affected his preparation of the team, King had little or no impact on the performance of the West Indies team.

In bidding farewell, however, King has recommended one of his entourage - one of his fellow Australians - as his successor, and hopefully, the board, Ken Gordon and his colleagues, all West Indians, will simply ignore it.

Apart from the fact that when the West Indies were the best in the world, West Indians were hardly anywhere around the world coaching big teams, the fact that Australia are now the best in the world does not mean that every Australian plays cricket, that every Australian is a good cricketer and that every Australian coach is a master - a man who, with one wave of his hand, can change a weak batsman into a great one, a weak bowler into an outstanding one and a weak fielder into a brilliant one.

Work miracles

Although, apparently, that was expected of him, King did not do so, he could not have done so - and neither can his assistant who should not be given the opportunity to even try.

While it is hardly likely that there is a West Indian coach who can work miracles, if anyone deserves the opportunity to try, it must be a West Indian - and for many reasons.

Although a good coach does not have to speak with the accent of a West Indian or eat ackee and salt fish, curried goat, pellou, and flying fish and cuckoo, reason number one is that he is a West Indian.

Reason number two is that being a West Indian, he understands the ways of the West Indian.

Reason number three is that after all these years of playing cricket, after producing one of the greatest teams ever in the game, and after being the champions of the world for so long, there must be a West Indian, or West Indians, who, whether they played the game at the highest level or not, must know and understand the game and can serve as coach.

On top of all that, and apart from the many other reasons, with the West Indies board strapped for cash, reason number four is that it would cost less, much less, to have a West Indian coach rather than a foreign coach with all his entourage - including physiotherapists and trainers which, surely, and good ones at that, can be provided by the West Indies.

There are those who will talk about the West Indian attitude of not listening to their own, while blindly following the foreigner, and they may be right. If, however, this region has to employ a foreigner simply because its people will not listen to their own, because its people will not accept their own, then something is wrong and something should be and must be done about it.

Respect their own

Someone then would have to teach the people of the region to respect their own.

It cannot be that for the sake of attempting to win a cricket match, or a cricket series, a football match or a football tournament, those in charge of the game are willing to either enslave the people again or are prepared to allow the people to be enslaved again.

West Indians, I am sure, and especially with so many of them so poor that they can hardly purchase medication, with the cost of a foreign coach so high that they live like kings, would much prefer that their team, their representatives, are coached, are trained, by their own, so that if and when they win they can, justifiably so, bring out the tambourines and the cymbals, the horns and the whistles, sing and dance with pride in their breasts and with joy in their hearts.

There are two West Indians who are really qualified for the job, two West Indian representatives who have been there before, who did a fairly good job, and who, but for the lack of support from board members and selectors, may have done a better job.

One of them, the one who was fired, or was about to be fired, shortly afterwards in order to make way for Bennett King, was even at the helm when the team miraculously won the ICC Champions Trophy in 2004.

One of them is Roger Harper, the other one is Gus Logie, and with Lara gone, with, according to the reports, some other changes about to be made, one, or preferably both of them, could, providing they are fully supported, do a wonderful job as coach and assistant coach. Probably one for batting, one for bowling and both for fielding and for instilling in the players the same pride, the same spirit, which they demonstrated while representing Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and the West Indies.

The whispers going the rounds are that David Williams of Trinidad and Tobago will be the man. He, however, is not comparable to either Harper or Logie and once they are available, hopefully that will not happen.