England’s new coach Peter Moores tried to play down the prospect of South Africa pace great Allan Donald joining his backroom staff after seeing the home side’s fast bowlers struggle during the drawn first Test against West Indies at Lord’s.
England’s quicks, notably Stephen Harmison who had mediocre match figures of 1-138, struggled to make much of an impression against a West Indies side ranked a lowly eighth in the world Test rankings.
While five England batsmen scored centuries in the match, it needed left-arm spinner Monty Panesar’s 6-129 to help build a first-innings lead of 116 after Moores’s men had piled up 553-5 declared.
England’s pacemen failed to fire for much of their recent 5-0 Ashes drubbing, their drop in form coinciding with the return of highly regarded bowling coach Troy Cooley to his native Australia.
Cooley, who now holds a similar position with Australia, was replaced by Kevin Shine, whose role has been called into question amidst suggestions he will soon be concentrating solely on developing up-and-coming England bowlers.
Donald, who knows English cricket well from his time as an overseas player with Warwickshire, has made no secret of his desire to work with England’s quicks, having previously acted as a mentor to Matthew Hoggard when the two were in the same Free State side in South Africa.
”Allan is very keen to come and work with us,” Moores told reporters after rain ensured his first Test in charge petered out into a draw.
”It’s a big positive that someone of Allan’s stature wants to come along,” the former Sussex coach added.
”There have been no decisions made because we’ve had a Test match going on, but now that’s over we can get into some discussions.
”I want to make sure that whoever we bring in fits our set-up and it’s the right person and we don’t just think that because it’s a great name we should just pull them in.”
And he insisted Harmison didn’t have a problem taking his form from county cricket into the Test arena, recalling his 2005 performances in England’s victorious Ashes campaign.
”If you look at the honours board in the [Lord’s] dressing room, he’s got 5-43 against Australia in probably one of the biggest pressure games he’s played. He can play, there’s no doubt about that.”
Both Harmison and fellow Durham quick Liam Plunkett struggled for accuracy at Lord’s and West Indies captain Ramnaresh Sarwan said: ”We got quite a few bad balls. Our guys played really well and we made use of what we had.”
West Indies haven’t won a Test outside the Caribbean against major opposition since defeating England at Edgbaston seven years ago but Sarwan said they would take heart from their battling performance at Lord’s.
”This is going to give us a lot of confidence going into the next Test, having been playing not that well at Test level. Hopefully, we can drive on from here.”
England are set to be without Hoggard because of a groin problem when the second Test starts at Headingley and possible replacements such as Jon Lewis and Stuart Broad are both injured.
Meanwhile, England are also waiting on the fitness of all-rounder Andrew Flintoff (ankle), who missed the Lord’s Test. He is due to undergo a fitness Test on Tuesday before England name their Headingley squad.
But Moores said he expected first-choice captain Michael Vaughan to return at his Yorkshire home ground following a broken finger that sidelined him from the series opener. — AFP
