Cricket: Donald moving quickly to help sharpen bowlers' work

Allan Donald. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Allan Donald is on a mission to toughen up New Zealand's bowling attitude.

Get hard is the key to his message and in his day as one of the great quicks of the modern game, Donald had that steely attitude in spades.

New Zealand's new bowling coach gets his first look at the players he'll be working with today before settling in for the six-game ODI series against Pakistan ahead of the World Cup starting midway through next month.

South Africans have never been exactly noted as soft touches on the cricket field.

Donald exemplified that during his 10-year career which yielded 330 test wickets from 72 tests and 272 from 164 ODIs.

"The big thing I always focus on is attitude and intensity," Donald said yesterday.

"You're working with players who know and understand their actions and their roles in the team, so you're not going to come in and over-coach things."

What's going on upstairs is where he wants to make a difference among the bowlers, particularly the fast-medium men.

He likes what he's seen of Tim Southee's approach.

The young swing bowler, who had a good test series, was fired up as New Zealand pushed for a win on the final morning of the second test against Pakistan in Wellington on Wednesday.

Along the way he had a few words with opener Mohammad Hafeez, which didn't go unnoticed by Donald.

"He's got a bit of white line fever and brings a lot to the table. It just needs to be channelled in the right direction, that aggression.

"But that's good, that's the kind of attitude I'm talking about."

Donald knows it's not automatically in every bowler's DNA, just as it's not necessary to hurl the ball down the pitch at 150km/h to be a world class operator. Harnessed correctly, the right aggressive attitude can help spread a positive buzz within a team.

"The attitude towards the skill is the big factor and that's what we need to change," Donald said.

Donald, 44, is well aware things haven't been flash on the ODI front for New Zealand of late, most notably the 11 successive defeats in exactly the territory they are heading back to for the World Cup - India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

His first priority is talking through a collective philosophy with the bowlers. Donald will hit the ground running this week, knowing time is short, but confident he can help sharpen up the work from the bowlers.

Meanwhile, Jamie How has his fingers crossed he won't be required as backup wicketkeeper to Brendon McCullum during the World Cup.

The Central Districts captain has been picked primarily as a batsman, but if McCullum's back plays up, How is first cab off the rank to pull on the gloves.

"Hopefully I'm not going to play a major [keeping] role at all in the tournament," he said, adding that it had "been a while" since he kept wicket.