My pacemen will match class of '05, insists Donald

Donald, whose "trial" as a fast bowling consultant was extended yesterday, believes he has a group of seamers with the potential to emulate the fabled quartet of Steve Harmison, Andrew Flintoff, Matthew Hoggard and Simon Jones, who did so much to win the Ashes in 2005. The only question now is whether he will be around long enough to see the completion of the maturing process of England's next generation.

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Allan Donald: Teaching the ways of the fast bowler

The fact that Donald could talk in such glowing terms about Stuart Broad, Jimmy Anderson, Liam Plunkett and Ryan Sidebottom ahead of today's second NatWest one-day international at Edgbaston shows the extent of the progress that has been made since he arrived just before the Headingley Test.

His addition to the coaching staff is clearly a delicate matter for the ECB who, as expected, stopped short of making his appointment a full-time one and must decide before the end of September whether they can justify two fast bowling coaches where once there was just the hugely successful Troy Cooley.

Kevin Shine replaced Cooley last year but had a difficult winter and whatever attempts are made by the ECB to insist that he was never intending to tour every winter with England, Donald's arrival is an admission that something extra was needed to cure a misfiring fast bowling contingent.

Since the South African joined up with England, Harmison has put much of the misery of the winter behind him. After working intensely with Donald at Old Trafford during the third Test, he bowled with his old pace and hostility in a 17-over spell against the West Indies at Durham.

Then Plunkett, embarrassingly erratic before being banished to county cricket, was recalled for the limited overs matches and spent two extended sessions working with Donald before the two Twenty20 matches last week.

After these sessions he looked both relaxed and penetrative in the first international at Lord's on Sunday.

Donald even appears to have brought a smile to Anderson's face, something that was beyond Cooley.

How has he done it? "I've tried to create a situation where the guys can just go out and bowl without worrying about technical issues," said Donald. "We want to bring the enjoyment factor back and they have responded very well. Peter Moores is someone who likes to see passion and intent in practice and I've always been the kind of person who prepares that way."

The respect which is earned by taking more than 300 Test wickets is clearly an advantage for Donald - as is being young enough, at 40, to still be remembered by the current crop.

"I haven't been doing all the talking," insists a coach who, it is said, is as adept at man-management as he is technical advice. "The guys have asked a lot of questions and I've shared a lot of moments with them, like the battles I had with Mike Atherton."

Donald, still looking slightly wrong in an England tracksuit, hopes his position will become permanent.

"I'd like it to be full-time, my passion is to work with guys at this level but for now it's a privilege to be given this opportunity to work with the England team," he said.

Allan Donald: Teaching the ways of the fast bowler

"England had a good crop of bowlers before I came here and now I've worked with them I feel they can move forward and take the roof off English cricket."

Ian Bell, back on home turf, had a chance to discuss with Warwickshire officials his controversial omission from the Friends Provident Trophy semi-final defeat by Hampshire. The match came the day after the fourth Test ended and even though the ECB laid on a helicopter to take Bell and Kevin Pietersen to the Rose Bowl, Warwickshire stuck with the team who had taken them to the last four.

"It hurt," said Bell. "Of course it did. I'm a Warwickshire lad and I want to play for them but it wasn't my decision.

"I've been told I'm definitely wanted here and I've got nothing on my mind other than to play for England and Warwickshire in the future."

No chance then, it seems, for Shane Warne's cheeky 'come and play for Hampshire' plea to Bell via his newspaper column to work.

Hail lashed Edgbaston yesterday, raising doubts as to whether today's match will take place. If it does, West Indies will promote Shivnarine Chanderpaul from five to three. England are likely to be unchanged, even though Sidebottom has recovered from the virus which kept him out of Sunday's match.