King's advice for West Indians

TRELAWNY, Jamaica
West Indies coach Bennett King hasasked his bowlers to tidy up their acts.Bowlers conceding boundaries on thelast ball of overs and bowling wides that add up to dozens of extra deliveriesin each match is rankling King."We tend to concede boundaries off the last balland waste all the good work of previous deliveries," King said as West Indiespracticed in Jamaica on Thursday to iron out the glitches ahead of the WorldCup.West Indies, winners of the first two editions of the World Cup in 1975 and'79, plays a final warmup match Friday against India and then opens thetournament proper against Pakistan at Kingston, Jamaica, on March 13.King saidhis bowlers needed to be more disciplined."We're sending down far too manywides that add up to three or four extra overs, now that's extravagant for anyside," King said.
"We're going into one-day cricket's biggest event, it's goingto be a tough competition."In the 21-run win over Kenya in a warmup match onMonday, the West Indies bowlers conceded 15 wides and three no-balls among 27sundries.Not good enough, King said.To be a genuine contender, King said theWest Indies had to be on top of the game with bat and ball.
And they're facing adifficult challenge _ no host nation has ever won the World Cup.The Caribbeansquad has recently re-emerged as a side to compete for the big trophies. Itsvictory in the biennial Champions Trophy _ the second biggest limited-oversevent after the World Cup _ in 2004 revived memories of the all-conquering teamsof the 70s and 80s.
But it failed to build on the success in the subsequentseasons until it reached the final of last year's Champions Trophy in India,where it lost World Cup holder Australia.Brian Lara's lineup was the only onein the three-week competition to pull off an upset against Australia when it wontheir preliminary league head-to-head.While Bennett has a solid batting lineupto marshall, he is concerned that Lara has not spent much time batting in matchconditions lately."Brian needs some more time in the middle leading up to theWorld Cup," said King. He's hoping to get that in the warmup against India.
"Atthe moment, Brian's jumping out of his seat to play."Lara, who owns the recordfor the highest scores in test and first-class cricket, did not bat earlier inthe week against Kenya, allowing others time at the crease after Marlon Samuels(100) and Chris Gayle (75) set the home team on course for 268 for six.The37-year-old Lara has not batted in a match since a Jan. 31 loss to India, wherehe had stands of 31, 83 and 3 in a 3-1 series loss.He scored the last of his 19one-day internationals against Pakistan at Adelaide, Australia in January 2005.India goes into Friday's match following a 182-run win in a warmup match againstNetherlands with Sachin Tendulkar scoring a half century to complement hisman-of-the-series achievement against the West Indies earlier in the year.