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Christchurch - New coach Sir Viv Richards is looking for more consistency from the West Indies team in the two Tests against New Zealand later this month.

The West Indies have had a roller-coaster ride in Test cricket recently, following a 5-0 whitewash in South Africa last season with a 2-2 draw in the home series with Australia, inspired by Brian Laras batting that brought scores of 213, 153 not out and 100 in successive Tests.

That result was achieved without an injured Shivnarine Chanderpaul, a key middle-order batsman, and has encouraged Richards as he looks to the future.

That was a great series. We were leading 2-1 going into the last Test match. And look what Australia has been doing in Test match cricket since then, the former captain, and the West Indies leading scorer in Tests, said.

We have clicked on occasions, he noted. If we could click a little more consistently, that is what people who care about West Indian cricket are looking for.

Richards, with the sun on his back for the first time since the teams arrival in Christchurch last Sunday, was satisfied that his younger players were progressing in the nets.

Theres some ability here and the main thing is to assess the conditions in New Zealand as early as possible, he said.

After tomorrows Super Max match at Jade Stadium here, in which the West Indies will experience a new, shortened form of the game for the first time, they have a three-day game against New Zealand A at Taupo and a four-dayer with Auckland to prepare themselves for the first Test in Hamilton December 16-20.

The second Test follows at Wellington December 26-30 after which the teams go into the series of five One-Day Internationals.

Richards hinted that he is prepared to give his new, young players - like batsmen Adrian Griffith, Wavell Hinds and Ricardo Powell and fast bowlers Pedro Collins and Reon King - a second chance.

Its only two Tests and, to be fair, any guy can go and have a bad Test match, he said. That doesnt mean hes a bad player.

Richards toured New Zealand in 1987 when he was captain in a three-match series that ended in a 1-1 deadlock. He missed the controversial 1980 series through injury.

Richards New Zealand counterpart, David Trist, said yesterday he still expected the West Indies to have plenty of fast bowling firepower in the Tests.

They ruled by fear and by skill in the 1980s and early 1990s, acknowledged Trist, but I think the West Indians remain very competitive with their new ball attack.

Trist is wary of a public perception in New Zealand that the current West Indies bowling battery is toothless compared to its predecessors.

It is a perception heightened by the absence of Curtly Ambrose because of an elbow injury. It means the 37-year-old Courtney Walsh fronts a fast-medium attack which includes recalled Franklyn Rose, Mervyn Dillon, Reon King and left-armer Pedro Collins, who have played only 22 Tests between them - against Walshs 110 and Ambroses 88.

Because they are rebuilding, I believe it is very important they dont lure us into a false sense of security, said Trist

© The Barbados Nation