Holding: 'Go Easy on Sarwan'

West Indies fast bowling great Michael Holding is urging Caribbean cricket fans not to be too critical of gifted young Guyanese batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan who has constantly failed to convert several fifties into a maiden Test century.

The stylish 21-year-old right-hander flattered to deceive yet again when he was out for 65 on Saturday?s opening day of the fifth and final Cable & Wireless Test against India at Sabina Park.

It was fourth occasion in the series Sarwan had been dismissed for a half-century and the 13th time in his career that he has passed fifty without going on to a hundred.

"People might say that Sarwan is continuously frustrating by getting half-centuries and not going on to a century (but) it was a similar story with Shivnarine Chanderpaul," Holding said. "Chanderpaul has now matured and is getting centuries on a much more regular basis. He already has three in this series and possibly more to come.

"It might be the same story with Sarwan. Perhaps, he will mature a bit later on because he is still a very young man.

"Batsmen, in particular go on until 36 to 38 (years old) so he has 16 years infront of him so I don't think we need to be too critical of him," urged Holding.

Holding, who is covering the series as a Television commentator for TWI (Trans World International) said the West Indies? batting is no longer fragile.

"We are in good hands as far as our batting is concerned. We are still having a few problems with the opening position. I don?t that is totally settled (but) the middle order, from number three to number six, we have absolutely no problem with that," Holding asserted.

"I think of (Brian) Lara, (Carl) Hooper, Chanderpaul and Sarwan, a very solid middle order. The top order, we now have to try and get that as solid as we can.

"Wavell Hinds and Chris Gayle, they did a reasonably good job in the first innings of the Antigua fourth Test (and improved on that with a century-stand on the first day of the final Test)," Holding noted.

"First time that we?ve had such a good opening partnership. Perhaps that opening partnership will blossom in time to come as well," Holding said.

The 'Rolls Royce' of fast bowling who took 249 wickets in 60 Tests at an average of 23.68 said there is still a lot of work for the current generation of West Indian bowlers to do.

"As far the bowlers, you can see that we are struggling a bit with the bowlers. We haven't got a spinner that you can say is a match-winner and of the fast bowler, we haven't got on single bowler that you can say is a match-winner either," Holding said.

"It is trying to be a combination of the three or four guys going out there and getting wickets to try to win Test matches. Well, that is good, fine but you still need to be at least be able to point on one match and say, 'that man can win you a Test match any day'. At the moment we haven't got that."

He said one of the problems facing the fast bowlers, especially in the current series against India, is "the surfaces on which they are being asked to perform".

SOURCE: Barbados Nation.