Lara’s illness opens door for Hinds/Samuels
By Tony Cozier In COLOMBO
Stabroek News
September 21, 2002
IT doesn’t require any deep cricketing knowledge to appreciate the effect of Brian Lara’s absence from the West Indies team in India.
It means the loss of a batsman fit to rate among the finest of all time and, at his best, the most devastating of his generation, capable of quick and heavy scoring.
“He’s needed in India, he’s a key figure in our side,” captain Carl Hooper said in typical understatement when the illness - still not officially identified - that hospitalised Lara on Tuesday was first detected.
Now that the holder of Test cricket’s highest score, and an average of 49.49, won’t be there, it offers an opportunity that might not otherwise have been there for two batsmen of the future, the left- handed Ryan Hinds and the right-handed Marlon Samuels, to reboot their fledgling careers.
Both have already had an early taste of Test cricket and are clearly players on whom the West Indies will heavily depend in the future.
Their progress so far has run parallel to each other, through the West Indies under-15 team to England in 1996 and the under-19s to the Youth World Cup in Sri Lanka in 1999 into the Test team.
Both owed their early introductions to the highest level to injuries to established batsman.
Samuels was first there, as the surprise replacement for the injured Shivnarine Chanderpaul midway through the difficult tour of Australia in 2000-01.
Hinds’ chance came in two Tests against Pakistan in Sharjah last February when Lara’s elbow dislocation on the preceding tour of Sri Lanka and Ramnaresh Sarwan’s stiff back kept them at home. Both made an immediate impression against high quality bowling.
In three Tests in Australia, against Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie and company, Samuels headed the team averages with 34.4.
Hinds handled his initiation against Shaoib Akhtar, Waqar Younis, Abdul Razzaq and Saqlain Mushtaq with equal aplomb, with 62 in his debut innings and the top score of 46 in his fourth and, to date, last.
Since then, both have been on the outside looking in - Samuels through a knee operation in Sharjah last February that required six months recuperation and Hinds because Lara and Sarwan returned to the team for the home series against India and New Zealand.
With Lara present, it would have been difficult to slot either into a middle order that also includes Sarwan at No.3, Chanderpaul at No.5 and Hooper at No.6.
Now Samuels, fit again, and Hinds, twelfth man throughout against India and New Zealand, will vie for the vacancy.
Hinds is already in Sri Lanka for the ICC Champions Trophy although, as in recent Tests, he was not chosen for either of the West Indies matches. Samuels arrives next Wednesday along with the four others (fast bowlers Cameron Cuffy, Jermaine Lawson and Darren Powell and all-rounder Gareth Breese) selected specifically for the Indian tour.
There won’t be much time for chairman of selectors, Sir Viv Richards, Hooper and coach Roger Harper to assess their form prior to the first Test that starts in Mumbai (Bombay) October 9.
The team will remain in Colombo until October 1, using the excellent facilities here to prepare physically, mentally and technically for India.
Management has arranged a three-day match September 28, 29 and 30 against Pakistan who are also remaining on prior to the first of their three Tests against Australia in the neutral venue of Colombo October 3-7.
Performances there and in the one three-day match in India leading up to the opening Test, against the Board President’s XI in Bangalore October 4-6, are likely to prescribe the final eleven.