Wallace Looking At Options (23 April 1999)

23 April 1999

Wallace Looking At Options

Philip Spooner

Less than a year ago, Philo Wallace was the main batting cog in the West Indies One-Day set-up.

Now, less than a month before the World Cup, the powerful opener has found himself in the wilderness after a series of failures on the South African tour and in the Busta Cup regional competition.

Wallace said he was disappointed at not being in the West Indies team and plans to pursue other options in the future.

"You can't keep sitting around and being pushed around," he said. "I have had some offers from South Africa and Australia for the winter and I will be looking at them seriously."

He said the selectors picked the players that they thought were the best to represent the West Indies.

"It's disappointing for me because I did well in the mini World Cup in Bangladesh in October but that is part of life," he said.

In that series, he hit a swashbuckling century in the final against South Africa to go along with three other flamboyant innings.

He then suffered a serious bout of glandular fever in South Africa which caused him to sit out a portion of the series, but he recovered enough to finish the trip.

"I came in a bit too soon after illness and I was not fully settled," the 28-year-old former Barbados captain said. "Cricket is about failures, and many of our best players failed, but you have to persist with people who have shown the ability in the past.

"We are too quick to judge and discard people in the West Indies. When I came back (from illness), I felt confident, but I just did not have the luck."

This week as he headed off to England to join his club Sunderland in the Vaux Durham Senior League, Wallace said he would be pursuing all options.

He said in England he will be looking to get his confidence back and then return home to represent Barbados in the Red Stripe Bowl in October.

"I still want to do well for Barbados and see where it goes from there."

Source :: The Barbados Nation (https://www.nationnews.com/)