Bernard Julien battles throat cancer

The former West Indies Test allrounder Bernard Julien is battling throat cancer, according to a report in the Trinidad Express newspaper.

Julien, 54, was diagnosed almost a year ago. He had been working as a government coach in Trinidad & Tobago, but had to stop because of persistent coughing and a lump in his throat.

He is determined to beat the disease, and doctors have apparently given him a 90% chance of doing so, provided he takes his medication and stops drinking and smoking. "I want to live. It is life you are talking about," he was quoted as saying. "I want to beat this thing. I am not giving up."

Julien, who played for Kent as well as T&T, was a lively left-arm fast bowler and an attacking right-hand batsman. He took 50 wickets in 24 Tests, and also scored 866 runs, with two centuries - the first of them a memorable 121, as Garry Sobers stroked 150, in the Lord's Test of 1973. Julien was also a member of the West Indian side that won the first World Cup, in 1975.