THE West Indies Cricket Board needs to establish a bowling academy to turn the region’s talented first-class players into outstanding Test cricketers.

That’s the view of former Trinidad and Tobago opening batsman, Andre Lawrence, who believes the West Indies’ moderate results in Test matches over the past decade are primarily due to a lack of penetrative bowling.

“We just don’t have the type of bowling to be competitive in Test cricket,” confided Lawrence, who is also a certified international cricket coach by the England and Wales County Cricket Board (EECCB).

“All the top batsmen in the West Indies team have scored Test centuries, so you have to ask: why are we losing so many Test matches?

“Most of the time West Indies goes out to bat chasing huge totals.

“All the major Test-playing countries are getting runs against us because our bowling can’t get through good Test batsmen.

“There are too many matches when we haven’t been able to get 20 wickets in a match.

“Look at how the West Indies bowlers were exposed on the New Zealand tour.

“Many times the West Indies seemed to be taking control of the match, but the New Zealand lower-order batsmen were always able to bat their way out of trouble.

“The bowlers just could not finish off the innings.

“The harsh truth is we just don’t have the bowling anymore to win matches; the current West Indies bowlers decent first-class cricketers but they aren’t top-class Test cricketers.

“The last two bowlers who could win matches consistently for the West Indies were Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose.

“When they retired from the game, the era of dominance truly came to an end.

“The crisis with our bowling is something we need to address because there aren’t any great bowlers coming out of the regional tournament.”

Lawrence then added: “What we need to do is establish a bowling academy, much the same way India developed its fast bowling academy with top-class coaches like Dennis Lillie, so that we can teach the young bowlers in the West Indies how to become world beaters.

“The only problem is there just aren’t enough quality coaches in the West Indies at the moment.

“It may be necessary to import some international coaches if we want to get results quickly.

“There are a lot of our legendary players around still, so if we can get players like Courtney Walsh, Curtly Ambrose and Andy Roberts to get some exposure and some advanced coaching courses, then we may be able to work with some of the young players on a full-time basis and then maybe we can get a match-winner or two.

“There is nothing that can replace practice; if you do it often enough, it makes perfect.”

Lawrence played eight years of first-class cricket for Trinidad and Tobago between 1990 and 1997, and as a professional cricketer in England for five years with Newton Sports Club in the Liverpool competition in Lancashire.

Lawrence has also played three matches with the MCC as a guest player, on the invitation of former Trinidad and Tobago all-rounder Kelvin Williams and former West Indies batsman Gus Logie.

The former Queen’s Park Cricket Club captain toured Australia in 1998 with the club, playing matches at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) and at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) on which Brian Lara scored magnificent first Test century of 277.

Lawrence also believes the bowling of the current India team is at best ordinary, and because of that lack of penetration, the series with the West Indies is turning out to be a very competitive affair, with all three matches so far being decided in the final over.

“I am not impressed with India’s bowling,” Lawrence stated.

“There really isn’t much to trouble West Indian batsmen so you can expect to see very close matches, because despite the difference in the ratings, the teams are very evenly matched.

“Both teams are very similar in batting, possibly India having a slight edge, but then West Indies has Brian Lara and there isn’t a player that can be compared to him.

“The bowling of both teams is at best ordinary, so the matches are going to be close, with very little between the two teams.

“There are going to be critical stages of the matches when you are bowling and when you are batting, and the matches will be decided on which team can keep their nerve at those pressure periods.

“I think Brian Lara has done marvellously well with the team so far; the West Indies certainly has the run of play right now but I don’t think we can read too much into this series.

“Zimbabwe was a great series for us.

“It does not matter how weak the team was; winning is winning.

“Once we start winning, the players are going to feel confident, they are going to enjoy playing again, and they are going to be very hard to beat right now.

“I think India is going to have to find something extra to get back into the series; somebody on that Indian team will have to come up with something inspirational to stop the West Indies.

“Winning is infectious, so I would back West Indies to win the series in Trinidad.”