'Find a Job For Andy Roberts'

Fast bowling great-turned-commentator Michael Holding is demanding the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) find a job for Andy Roberts -- specifically to work with Jermaine Lawson and Darren Powell.

Michael Holding, who shared the new ball with Roberts in the glorious 1980s, said Lawson and Powell needs expert work immediately if they are to maintain the momentum gained in India. "They need expert advice right now. They should be sent to Andy Roberts, or Andy sent wherever they are, for him to work on specific things for a week or two."

In an interview with Tony Cozier, Holding said he was sure that if the WICB approached Roberts, "he'd be happy to do it." Roberts, who served as West Indies team coach between 1995 and 1996, took 202 wickets in a nine-year, 47-Test career that spanned

Holding said Lawson (20) and Powell (24),needed to work harder on specific areas if they are to be successful in the Test arena. Holding has privately advised Powell to "work a little harder" on finding the "medium length, between full and short" needed especially on flat pitches.

"He needs to be finding that length on a regular basis, getting batsmen to be indecisive about their strokeplay. That will help get them out."

The Jamaican legend said Lawson did not seem comfortable running up a slight gradient from the pavilion end in the third Test but believed that that could be sorted out with time.

He was especially high on Lawson and noted that Roberts had been talking about him for some time and pressing for his inclusion in the team. "Powell is a young man who's not afraid to run in and bowl fast on flat pitches and he showed the control necessary in the [Calcutta] Test," he said.

Holding, who took 249 Test wickets in his career, was puzzled that captain Carl Hooper preferred the slower Cameron Cuffy with the new ball to either Lawson or Powell.

"We need pace," he said. "It's something we've been talking about in the West Indies for years. Now we've got two young men with a bit of pace, we've got to let them loose."