King turns down West Indies job

Lawrence Prescott,Guyana
Wednesday 09 April 2003 00:00 BST
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The West Indies were dealt a major blow on the eve of the first Test against Australia here after Bennett King rejected an offer to become their new coach.

King, the head coach of the Australian Cricket Academy, spent the last few days discussing a possible move to the Caribbean with his family, but decided instead to remain in his current position.

"It wasn't a decision I came to lightly," the Brisbane-based King said. "I decided [that] at this point in time, I'm going to learn much more from the Australian way."

The West Indies Cricket Board announced that King would succeed Roger Harper as coach last week "subject to completion of contractual negotiations." They hoped he would agree to take over in July, with Gus Logie taking charge for the home series against Australia and Sri Lanka. But King always insisted "no terms and conditions had been spoken about or offered."

Australia survived a scare to force a draw in their opening tour match here on Monday. The Guyana Board President's XI almost stole an unlikely victory after being set a daunting target of 442 on the third and final day, finishing just 40 runs short.

The Australian spinner Brad Hogg finished with figures of 5 for 112 as he took nine wickets in the match to emerge as the favourite to replace the banned Shane Warne in the first Test, which starts tomorrow.

* Pakistan warmed up for tomorrow's Sharjah Cup final with Zimbabwe by demolishing Kenya by 143 runs in yesterday's dead rubber. Chasing a formidable target of 287 to win, Kenya wilted in the face of impressive bowling by the pace bowler Mohammad Sami, who took 4 for 25, and they were eventually bowled out for 143 in the 32nd over.

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