Windies call on uncapped teenager to replace Chanderpaul

PERTH - The West Indies called in an uncapped teenager and a Perth psychologist today as they tried to rebuild a shattered team before the third Test.

Jamaican 19-year-old Marlon Samuels will replace the injured Shivnarine Chanderpaul while team management spoke to motivator Dr Neil McLean to help restore their flagging confidence.

McLean, who works closely with AFL club Fremantle, advised West Indies team manager Ricky Skerritt on areas a sports psychologist could aid the team which has been thrashed by an innings in each of the first two Tests against Australia.

Skerritt said he was keen to discuss a possible role for McLean but was unsure whether he could achieve results in time for the start of the third Test in Adelaide on December 15.

"It's not exactly a quick process," he said.

"You don't bring in a guy and by osmosis or by some great speech he makes guys change their lives forever."

Team management could make the decision to employ McLean for a short term consultancy, but any arrangement in which he travelled with the team would have to be ratified by the West Indies board.

Samuels, the younger brother of left-handed opener Robert who toured Australia in 1997, will depart Kingston on Tuesday morning (West Indies time) and is expected to play in the four-day game against Australia A in Hobart on Saturday.

Samuels impressed in making a rapid 50 in the warm-up game to the ICC tournament in Kenya against India in October and added 19 runs in 32 balls in his only one-day international against Sri Lanka.

Windies coach Roger Harper said the stylish right-hander, who is said to also be a handy offspinner, had got the nod ahead of Australian Cricket Academy invitees Ricardo Powell and Chris Gayle.

"I wouldn't describe him as conservative, he has an easy way of playing and is a fluent stroke player," he said.

Skerritt said Chanderpaul would be out of action for four weeks because of a stress fracture in his foot.

He was likely to be sent back to the Caribbean if he was not selected for the triangular one-day series against Australia and Zimbabwe starting in Melbourne on January 11.

"Obviously that makes it a tight call as to whether he will be match fit to be able to come back into the team for the fifth Test," he said.

"If he is selected in the one-day squad, he will stay with us and get ready hopefully for the Test and the one-dayers."

Skerritt said costs prohibited the use of new technology available in Australia that speeds up recovery by 25 per cent.

Batsman Brian Lara did not take part in the net session at the WACA today and is expected to miss the Prime Minister's XI game in Canberra on Thursday.

Paceman Mervyn Dillon will also sit out after an ankle injury sustained when he stepped on a plastic bottle during the first Test in Brisbane flared up at training yesterday.

However, right arm swing bowler Kerry Jeremy, who had his jaw shattered by a Matthew Nicholson delivery in the opening four-day tour match against WA last month, is back in the nets and is available for the game.