Follow heart, Courtney

To have heard Courtney Walsh speak on Tuesday night at the dinner in his honour at the Sherbourne Centre was to appreciate the uncertainty over his future that is troubling him.

The circumstances are well known. At the age of 37 and after 16 years as an international cricketer, the great, hugely-admired Jamaican fast bowler and sportsman is agonising over whether it is time for him to follow his long-time partner, Curtly Ambrose, into retirement or whether he should press on.

Ambrose made his position clear well in advance. He announced after the series against Pakistan in May, appropriately at his home ground in Antigua, that the recent England tour would be his last.

Good reason

He has stuck to his word, noting that he is not enjoying the game as much as he used to. It seems as good a reason as any, and better than most.

Those who have spent their careers at the top of their sport, as Ambrose and Walsh have, usually know within themselves when it is time to go.

When Ambrose's retirement letter was being prematurely written for him by others, he responded: "Only Curtly Ambrose knows when it's time for Curtly Ambrose to quit." That time has come.

Ambrose is a year younger than Walsh, is as mean, if not as fast, as ever and an automatic selection if he cared to continue. But Curtly has made up his mind and nothing will change it.

Nor should it. For him to be so persuaded would bring back a cricketer whose heart would not be fully in it and Curtly's heart has always been one of his greatest attributes.

Walsh's circumstances are somewhat different.

Still enjoys

It is clear he still enjoys the game that has been his life since he was a boy in short pants trundling leg-breaks in the nets at the Melbourne Club in Kingston.

His phenomenal success over the past year-and-a-half, in which he has taken 86 wickets in 16 Tests at the miserly average of 18.92 runs each and gone past Kapil Dev as Test cricket's highest wicket-taker, is certain proof that he is still at the peak of his game.

In his cricketing eventide, he has even learned a new trick, a slower ball that has given him as much delight as it has anguish the poor batsmen, not least Graham Thrope who was twice utterly bamboozled by it in the recent series.

Doubts

So where is the problem? Why is it that Walsh, as fit as ever, as effective as ever, as keen as ever and only 17 wickets away from the once unimaginable 500 Test wickets, has doubts about his future?

Only he himself knows the answers, but it would be surprising if the hard grind of an Australian series, now with the five Tests crammed into six weeks between November 23 and January 6 and without the trusty Ambrose at the other end, was not a consideration prominent at the back of his mind.

Walsh has proved his commitment to West Indies cricket 122 times over and more but he is also a realist. In both his recent series - in the Caribbean against Zimbabwe and Pakistan and in England - he had a refreshing, month-long break between the second and third Tests while others busied themselves with the one-day stuff.

There would be no such break in Australia where the Tests and the triangular One-Day tournament have been separated.

Being the man he is, Walsh will only make himself available for Australia if he believes he can cope with the physical challenge. If he does, he will give it everything, for he knows no other way.

And, recalling advice from Desmond Haynes, there was just a hint at Sherbourne that he is inclined to continuing.

"Desmond said he did not have the chance to finish the way he wanted to because of unforeseen circumstances," Walsh said.

"He told me that as long as I am enjoying the game, as long as I am doing well and as long as I can do the job, that I should not step away and give someone else my job because they have not earned it."

There seemed enough justification in those words for Walsh not to "step away".

Whatever he does, he has asked for his decision to be respected.

He, and Ambrose, have been badgered by several famous voices and others less famous but no less heartfelt to play on. There are misgivings that those who would take their places have not given notice that they are ready

With Ambrose gone, it is already the end of an era. If Walsh joins him, it will be undoubtedly be a blow for he has seemed immortal. But it won't be the end of the world.

It might just make men out of the boys who have to succeed them.