``Dinas'' sent home (25 November 1998)

25 November 1998

"Dinas" sent home

By Tony Cozier in Johannesburg

Rawl Lewis is being rushed from the far-off Indian city of Pune to Johannesburg in the hope that he can arrive today in time to be considered, possibly even selected, for the West Indies for the critical First Test against South Africa starting at the Wanderers Stadium here tomorrow.

Lewis' crisis dash from India, where has been playing on the West Indies "A" team tour, was prompted by the lingering injury to his bowling shoulder that has ruled first-choice leg-spinner Dinanath Ramnarine out of the tour.

His presence, even such a late stage, will give captain Brian Lara and his fellow tour selectors at least the option of picking him in the final eleven.

Guyanese leggie Mahendra Nagamootoo, like Lewis and Ramnarine a former Young West Indies player, will be the replacement on the sub-continent.

That will be determined by the effect of jet-lag once Lewis gets here and a final examination of the pitch just before the toss.

With Courtney Walsh putting his previously painful left knee through a thorough, uncomplaining workout over three-quarters of an hour at net practice yesterday, the West Indies could breathe considerably easier than they were when the injury threatened to keep the veteran fast bowler out of the Test.

"Courtney had a good run out and is pretty happy," team physiotherapist Dennis Waight said last night. "It was a pretty good effort and if he feels as good tomorrow as he did today, it should be no problem but we'll just have to wait to determine what side effects there are, if any."

"He is very keen to play," Waight added redundantly. The 36-year-old Walsh always is. It would be his 103rd Test in 14 years of international cricket but this is likely to be special as it would be his first-as it is the West Indies' first-in South Africa and should earn him the two wickets he needs to surpass current team coach Malcolm Marshall's West Indies record of 376 Test wickets.

With Walsh fit, Lewis' arrival would give the selectors a full hand of five fast bowlers and one specialist spinner from whom to chose. In the event, the likeliest combination is four fast bowlers-Walsh, his long-serving partner in destruction Curtly Ambrose, Nixon McLean and either Merv Dillon or Franklyn Rose-with the support of Carl Hooper's off-spin.

Even if he is touched by jet-lag, Lewis, the 24-year-old Windward Islander from Grenada, would be match-ready. He has been playing consistently since early October, first in the domestic Red Stripe Bowl, then in the Wills Cup-the so-called mini World Cup-in Bangladesh and most recently on the current "A" team tour of Bangladesh and India.

In his most recent match, against the Indian Board President's XI in Mumbai, he had match figures of six for 117 from 34.5 overs. He was preferred to Ramnarine on last year's tour of Pakistan and Sharjah when he went wicketless in his solitary Test and made his mark more in the One-day Internationals, delivering his leg-breaks from round the wicket into rough outside the right-handers' leg-stump.

But Ramnarine superseded him for the Tests against England in the Caribbean last season and he had a definite role in the victories in the two in which he played, earning the Man-of-the-Match award in the final Test in Antigua.

Ramnarine's misfortune is not entirely unexpected for the problem has prevented him from throwing overhand for several months. While he was able to bowl, he was obviously affected during his prolonged spell of 29 consecutive overs in the defeat against Free State on Sunday.

West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) chief executive Stephen Camacho insisted from his office in Antigua yesterday that Ramnarine was passed fit for the tour through a medical certificate from an orthopedic surgeon.

He added that all but one of the touring team, who he did not identify, had passed the WICB's fitness test, even though all were not conducted by the US-based, Barbados-born specialist Dr Sam Headley. Others were examined by Denis Waight and Ronald Rogers, physios to the two touring teams.

Camacho said the WICB had endeavoured to send Ramnarine to its regular specialist, Jamaica-born Dr Ainsworth Allen, in New York but this had not been possible in the end.

As it happens, Dr Allen is expected in Johannesburg today and will examine Ramnarine prior to the Trinidad and Tobago leg-spinner's return to the Caribbean.

Source :: The Trinidad Express (https://www.trinidad.net/express/)