JEROME TAYLOR, the slim Jamaican six days short of his 19th birthday, was yesterday summoned as the latest recruit in the West Indies’ exhaustive, still futile, quest to revive their renowned fast bowling legacy.
In his first season of regional cricket, and with only seven first-class matches to his name, Taylor was included in the squad of 14 for the first of two Tests in the brief series against Sri Lanka, starting on Friday at the Beause-jours Stadium in St.Lucia.
If, as expected, he is in the starting eleven, he will not only be the tenth teenager, and the sixth youngest, to represent the West Indies in Test cricket but also the youngest of all their fast bowlers.
While Taylor gets an early chance, Corey Collymore is recalled as one of four pacers four years after his solitary Test, against Australia in 1999. In the interim, he has been affected by a stress fracture of the back that caused a change in his action and a reduction of pace and pigeon-holed as a limited-overs specialist.
He has since been confined to 42 one-day internationals while the selectors have tried 14 others without finding a reliable replacement for Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh, the last of their powerful fast bowling chain.
The eventual composition of the attack will be determined by the final appearance of the pitch at the two-year-old stadium, nestled between the Beausejours hills in the north of St.Lucia, that becomes the Caribbean’s ninth Test venue. Whatever the combination, Taylor has made enough of an impact to guarantee his place.
He has a sound, relaxed action, delivers from close to the stumps, maintains excellent control and observes a full length and direct line. According to the speed gun, he consistently generated pace in the high 80 mph range on his international debut in the one-day match against the Sri Lankans in St.Vincent on Wednesday.
In his third first-class match, in the Carib Beer Series, he had second innings figures of eight for 59 against Trinidad and Tobago and five for 39 in the next innings against India ‘A’.
When he dismissed Marvan Atapattu and Mehela Jayawardene, two of Sri Lanka’s main batsmen, in a burst of five overs for the President’s XI in the three-day match in St.Vincent on Sunday, he was withdrawn from the attack for the remainder of the innings and kept in reserve for the Test. Especially with Merv Dillon falling short all season of his obligations as the leader of the attack and with unpenetrative back-up, he will be hard-pressed against stronger batting than he has ever had to encounter.
Captain Hashan Tillakaratne (11), Sanath Jayasuriya and Atapattu (10 each), Jayawardene (9), Kumar Sagakkara (4), Romesh Kuluwitherana (3), Thilan Samaraweera (2) and Tillakaratne Dilshan (1) have 50 Test hundreds between them. They reeled off one totals of 590 for nine declared and 627 for nine declared in two of the three Tests in the 3-0 clean sweep the last time the teams met, in Sri Lanka in 2001.
In the circumstances, Brian Lara must guard against overbowling Taylor at such a tender age when he clearly has not fully developed physically. Taylor and Collymore are the only two of the 14 who did not play in the four Tests in the preceding series against Australia. Injury has eliminated experienced left-handed batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul, recovering from a finger broken in the final Test last month, and fast bowler Jermaine Lawson, still troubled by back pain. The selectors appear to have two clear choices to make in trimming the squad to eleven.
They are whether Chris Gayle’s all left-handed opening partnership should be with Devon Smith or Wavell Hinds and whether conditions merit an all-pace attack, at the expense of Omari Banks’ promising off-spin and ice-cool batting that saw the West Indies to their record final Test victory over Australia.
The squad: Brian Lara (captain), Ramnaresh Sarwan (vice-captain), Omari Banks, Carlton Baugh, Corey Collymore, Merv Dillon, Vasbert Drakes, Daren Ganga, Wavell Hinds, Ridley Jacobs, Marlon Samuels, Devon Smith and Jerome Taylor.