'Don't Be Too Harsh on Sarwan' - Hooper

In the face of heated criticism about the manner in which middle-order batsman Ramna-resh Sarwan was twice dismissed in the first Test against New Zealand, West Indies? captain Carl Hooper and coach Roger Harper have urged members of the media not to be too harsh in condemning the young, gifted Guyanese.

Sarwan, who celebrated his 22nd birthday during the match which the Black Caps won by 204 runs, was out for a first-ball 'duck' and 18 in the second innings, to ill-advised cross-batted pulled shots from short deliveries.

"Well, I don?t want to make a big case for Sarwan [but] I think we all played loose shots and got out," Hooper said in a post-match news conference.

"The last time I saw Ramnaresh out this way was against South Africa. I think, since then, he has disciplined himself and has been batting well all summer.

"I think we?ve got to be careful not to be harsh on these players. Ramnaresh is a young player. He is only 22. This is the first time he would've had this amount of cricket behind him and obviously, you begin to see a little bit of cracks," Hooper said.

The captain added that at this stage it was important not to be too critical. He said the players deserved time as it was still a learning process for them.

"This is what the itinerary will look like for the next few years. We will be playing a lot of cricket and I?m sure we?ll learn from this," Hooper said.

An emotional Harper also stoutly defended Sarwan, pointing to the preceding five-Test series against India when he amassed 317 runs with four half-centuries at an average of 45.28.

"I think when players are failing over a long period of time, they are often given a bit of a rest. That is exactly the situation.

"Here is a young fellow (Sarwan), who we think has the world at his feet, is now growing in the game, averaged close to 50 in his last Test series. He made two horrible errors in this game, no doubt about that, but I think we are a little drastic at times," the coach said.