'Indians Are Champion Material'

His own country having made an early exit, former SouthAfrican coach Bob Woolmer is backing India to win the World Cup.

"I have always believed and still do that Indianshave it in them to win the World Cup," said Woolmer, who acquired asuperstar's status during his heady days with the South African team in the'90s.

"I backed India in England and am backing themnow. "They are great World Cup contenders." Woolmer has been veryimpressed with the discipline India has shown in recent times and, besidesbatting, showered praise on India's seam bowling department.

"India has a very powerful batting line-up but Iam also very impressed with the discipline in the field, particularly of thefast bowlers who seem to know what they are doing." Woolmer rates thepresent Indian side vastly superior to the ones he faced numerous times duringhis years as coach of South Africa.

He rubbished speculations that he had been offered thejob of coach of the Indian team and said he was more inclined to take up aconsultancy position with any team.

"There is only one international team which hasapproached me to be their coach and it is West Indies," said Woolmer."But I am not sure if I am ready to travel on a full- time basis. I wouldbe more than happy to consider a consultancy option if it comes along.Woolmer is pretty happy with his present job as a development officer of theInternational Cricket Council which takes him around countries such as Kenya,Namibia, Canada and Holland on coaching assignments.

"The minnows haven't done badly. If you look at afew of their games, they were tightly contested," Woolmer said.

"Besides, Kenya beating Sri Lanka and John Davisongetting that marvellous hundred has all made right noises." Woolmer wasscathing in his criticism of the South African team which bowed out of the WorldCup in the league stage itself after its rain-affected game against Sri Lankaended in a tied score.

"You can blame weather but the team wasn'tprepared for rain. That's gross tardiness especially when you look at how theentire nation has gone into mourning. Apparently, they scrambled for papers andcalculators in the dressing room when the rain factor came in and could notreact in time," Woolmer said.

Giving the instance of English county Warwickshire thathe coaches, Woolmer said even a first class side was ready these days to tacklethe Duckworth-Lewis system.

"In our dressing room in Warwickshire, there is aradar which conveys how far the rain has moved and whether it has a chance tointerfere with the game. An international side ought to be aware of the weatherand can't take chances at all." Woolmer said South African cricket was notthrowing up enough talent for the team to be enthused with fresh blood and thebarrenness was worrying.

"There a bit of vacuum. Some of the whites may be giving up cricket anddoing other things. Conversely, in the townships, if good cricketing childrenare not looked after between 18 and 24, they also struggle to find a job.,"Woolmer said.

"I personally know a few cricketers who only get ajob when they can't play cricket on Saturdays. It's hard to retain fresh talentand South African cricket is suffering."

Woolmer was extremly upset at the way fast bowlinggreat Allan Donald, who incidentally plays for Warwickshire, was treated by histeam during the ongoing tournament.

"It is disappointing how he has been treatedduring this World Cup. They selected him for a reason and lost confidence in himafter just one game.

"Every cricketer, whether 21 or 35, needsconfidence and boosting. It certainly wasn't the case with Allan. Just one badgame and they played into him.

"This is not the way to look after a player. Thewhole thing got to him but then he also has to accept certain blame for notbowling well," Woolmer said.

PTI