Former players urge inclusion of specialist seamers in Windies team

Port-of-Spain, Apr 8 (UNI) Congratulating the West Indian players for beating Sri Lanka in the second Test here, former internationals Deryck Murray and Bryan Davis urged the inclusion of four specialist fast bowlers in the team.

''It's very good to have two wins out of five matches against two countries (West Indies beat South Africa in Port Elizabeth last December) who are higher on the table,'' Davis, a former Test opener, was quoted as saying by the Trinidad Express.

''It should make them feel good, and better about themselves.

(But) I don't consider Bravo a specialist bowler He's a good bowler, but he's a support bowler, the fifth bowler. He's an allrounder. We're missing that (fourth) bowler,'' he added.

''Once you have to put in the four specialist bowlers, I believe batsmen like Bravo and [Denesh] Ramdin have to come to the fore and make runs, and improve their approach. They are the ones at No 6 and 7 to make some runs, not counting out specialist bowlers.'' His views were echoed by Murray, who is the president of the Trinidad and Tobago board.

''What we need to be doing is when you select your teams you select six people as specialists. You need to put the responsibility on the batsman, six batsmen need to do the job,'' Murray said.

He also stressed on the need for a spinner to introduce variety in to the attack.

''Whether it's a more containing type of bowler as opposed to the wicket-taking spinner, and you need two or three close to the team. (It's been) hard on our spinners over the last three or four years, who have been the leading wicket-takers over the last few years and they deserve recognition,'' Murray stated.

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