Sarwan Must Get His First Test Century

Clearly, the ailing Brian Lara will be sorely missed by the West Indies Cricket team for the three-Test and one-day tour of India, which begins later this week.

His phenomenal series in a losing cause against Sri Lanka including the offspinner, Muttiah Muralitharan, on that country's turning wickets late last year, proved yet again that Lara can be an absolute master against high-quality spin. Yet, a look at the records will show that on the West Indies' last Test tour of India way back in late 1994, the left-handed Trinidadian champion was not a major factor, scoring just 198 runs in six innings for a series average of 33.00.

Then, it was the Jamaican, James Adams, who led the way with 520 runs in six innings for an extraordinary average of 173.33.

Of course, Adams is no longer around. Indeed, of the West Indians who toured India in 1994, only three are returning. They are captain, Carl Hooper, Shivnarine Chanderpaul -who played just one Test eight years ago - and fastbowler, Cameron Cuffy.

All West Indians will be hoping that Chanderpaul, who had such a prolific series against India in the Caribbean a few months ago, will reproduce that form on tour, in the absence of Lara.
The time is now for Ramnaresh Sarwan - a quality player against spin bowling - to score his first Test century and so too should Marlon Samuels, Ryan Hinds and Lara's replacement, Daren Ganga, if they get the chance.

Regarding Ganga, Vivian Richards and his selection panel must have been strongly tempted to call on the young Windward Islands batsman, Devon Smith. If the indicators are on target, the 20 year-old left-hander is a very special talent and should not be held back for much longer.

The 23 year-old Ganga probably got the nod primarily because of his reasonable batting form on the West Indies 'A' tour of England in July/August and a sense that justice demands he be given another chance.

Much attention will be focused on the performance of the Jamaican pacers, 24 year-old Darren Powell and 20 year- old Jermaine Lawson. Several West Indian fastbowlers have made their names on tours of India. And as we look desperately around for penetrative pacers to replace the likes of Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh, we can only hope that these two young men are at least part of the answer.

There was a fair degree of caustic comment about the West Indies' loss to South Africa in the Champions Trophy. For me the most disappointing aspect was the hesitant running between wickets.
One would have expected that experienced players like Chanderpaul would understand by now that in the one-day form of the game in particular, there is no place for stop- start-stop and there has to be trust in one's partner.

The good thing was that WI should have won the game quite easily, which means it seems to me, that they are making progress. Who knows? They could be a serious dark horse at the World Cup!

* SOURCE: Jamaica Observer.