Back to Bennett King

Mon, Oct 25, '04

The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) is on the verge of naming Australian Bennett King as its new head coach, Wisden Cricinfo is reporting.

The Web site said a formal announcement was expected later on Monday. King was originally identified as the senior team coach in early 2003 but he famously turned down the job and embarrassed the WICB in the process.

It was well known that the WICB had interviewed King after Gus Logie was fired but, by all accounts, he was a longshot for the job.

In fact, former Australia captain Greg Chappell was widely considered the frontrunner and Chappell himself confirmed in a media report that he had been offered the job and, at the time, was "50-50" on accepting.

It all suggests that negotiations with Chappell broke down and Bennett King became the secondary candidate.

The 39-year-old King was most recently head coach of the Australia cricket academy. Before that, he led his native Queensland to three Pura Milk Cup titles between 1999 and 2003.