Time for Sarwan to be back

TIMES INT'L

Dear Editor,
I am pleased that Ramnaresh Sarwan, even after being ousted yet again by the selectors of the West Indies Cricket Board, is now a renewed man and is looking to put his career back on stream.
Sarwan is training in a strong 14-man squad for this month’s T20 tournament, which will give him another opportunity to stake a claim for his place in the West Indies team.
His statement shows a deep level of commitment: “I am willing to put the past behind me, what happened in the past will stay in the past, there’s nothing that will get in my way from here on. I will put everything aside and show myself, and continue to be the old Ramnaresh Sarwan who first started his career in 2000.”
Sarwan has a lot of cricket left in him, and this is tied to the fact that the West Indies have openings in all three formats of the game (T20s, One Day Internationals and Tests). The middle order remains quite brittle – Darren Bravo has not yet arrived; Dwayne Smith is being overly recycled; and Darren Sammy is a make number player by necessity of captaincy.
Sarwan is a tested and proven high quality batsman, with a record of two doubles to go with 13 single hundreds in 87 Tests, scoring 5842 runs at an average of 40.01. His career best of 291, made against England, is the highest Test score by a Guyanese.
Then in 173 ODIs, Sarwan has amassed 5644 runs at an average of 43.41 with four hundreds and 38 half-centuries.
This kind of class, with its accompanying record, must not be slighted, and I am hoping that Sarwan will speak very loudly and eloquently with his bat.
Sarwan has been appointed Leicestershire’s four-day captain for the upcoming English county season.
The 32-year-old will replace former Test seamer Matthew Hoggard. Sarwan started for Leicestershire in the last season and was able to score 941 runs at an average of 40.91. Not new to captaincy, he has filled in occasionally for Hoggard, who was injured at times. This is another reason for his return to the West Indies fold. Many younger players can profit from him.

Yours truly,
Hermann Stanley

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