Nurturing' Marlon Samuels
published: Wednesday | April 23, 2003
THE EDITOR, Sir:
AS AN avid West Indian cricket lover, I have followed the progress of the team and paid special attention to the comments made by administrators in various positions. One of the catchy phrases tossed around by the selectors in recent times is "Nurture" when referring to their handling of the young talent in the region. After observing the way the selectors have treated Marlon Samuels, I am inclined to think that they are clueless as to what nurturing means.
How can you explain a young man being excluded from the first two test matches in the recent tour of India, included for the third in which he played a major role by scoring his maiden test century, followed this up by scoring two half centuries and capped it all by scoring a magical century in the seventh and deciding game seven which earned him a Man of the Match award.
After such superlative performances, you would think that our esteemed selection panel whose aim is to "nurture" would have seen it fit to positively reinforce the young man's confidence. Instead, he goes to the World Cup and sits for five games while the batting struggles. Try for one minute and put yourself in Marlon's place and try to rationalise the chain of events since India. I firmly think that his failure in the first test in Guyana is a manifestation of the sad way in which his career is being handled.
