Tough times for Hinds, Sarwan

Two particular setbacks have compounded the horrendous start to the West Indies tour of Australia.

It is only six months since Wavell Hinds and Ramnaresh Sarwan raised hopes that two new, young batsmen had emerged to give West Indies batting the vibrancy it was lacking.

Now, after one Test of the Australian series, Hinds was no longer in the starting eleven and Sarwan has had his confidence so shattered by a succession of failures he clearly needs protection from further psychological damage.

Their woes simply continue a distressing trend in which every West Indian player in the present team, bar none, has regressed after a promising start to their Test careers.

Hinds, the tall Jamaican left-hander with an attacking method and mindset, demonstrated class and temperament in his 165 against Pakistan's strong and well balanced attack at Kensington Oval in May.

It was only his fourth Test and he followed it with scores of 52, 26 and 63 to end his first series (also including two Tests against Zimbabwe) with 409 runs from five Tests at an average of 58.42.

A similarly dashing 52 in the first innings of the Lord's Test in England in the summer and three hundreds against county opponents indicated a continuation of his Caribbean form.

Instead, three unlucky umpiring decisions cut him short in successive innings and he fell away so dramatically he finished with an average of 16.33. He retained his place on the team to Australia but, after 10 consecutive Tests, was omitted from the First Test.

Sarwan's unbeaten 84 on debut in the same Test innings where Hinds hit his 165 prompted high expectations of a 19-year-old who had been groomed for just this purpose since he was 15. Ted Dexter, the former England captain, was at Kensington to witness it and proclaimed on its evidence that the exciting young Guyanese would end a lengthy Test career averaging 50.

It was a prediction given credence by Sarwan's play in his three Tests in England on pitches made to order for swing bowling and alien to his upbringing on the slow, low pitches of Guyana.

In six innings, Sarwan averaged 40.75 and showed the distinctive calibre of all the best players of making difficult conditions look simple.

In its wisdom, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) dispatched him-and three others-to the Australian Academy in Adelaide immediately prior to the current tour.

He received flattering reports from coaches Rod Marsh and Wayne Phillips and, just for good measure, hit 112 for the Academy in a four-day match against Tasmania.

Since joining the West Indies tour, Sarwan has gone through the horrors-and the close attention paid by coaches Roger Harper and Jeff Dujon, well intentioned as it is, could be proving counter-productive.

After Sarwan struggled for 20 and 12 in the opening match in Perth, Harper and Dujon reportedly concerned he was falling playing across the line.

They have worked on his technique in the nets but the effect seems to have shorn Sarwan of his self-belief, one of his obvious assets. He came into the Test on a pair against Victoria and he left the Test with another.

His misjudgment over a second run had him diving in vain to save his hand in the first innings, a needless run-out. In the second, he came in with Brett Lee in the middle of his swiftest spell of the match, passing captain Jimmy Adams on the way out.

As so frequently happens to those in such a fragile state, he attracted a fast, in-swinging yorker that would have accounted for most batsmen.

These Australians, like the West Indies of 1984 whose record for successive Test victories they have now equalled, are ruthless in their exploitation of any opposition weakness, technical or psychological.

The teenaged New Zealander Ken Rutherford, later to captain his country, was just one put through the same torture as Sarwan is enduring now when he came to the Caribbean in 1985 with the West Indies at their height of their powers.

Even more seasoned batsmen with imposing records succumb to the imposing pressure of powerful opponents.

Greg Chappell in 1981/82, David Gower in 1984 and Mohinder Amarnath in 1983 were three who had rough times against the West Indies. Rahul Dravid and Stephen Fleming last season and Brian Lara so far here have been made to struggle by these Australians.

Lee let it be known after the First Test there would be no respite for Sarwan or anyone else.

"You have to be ruthless," he said. "You have to try to shake these new guys up and get up their noses a little."

Malcolm Marshall, Michael Holding, Joel Garner and accomplices didn't have to indulge in such braggadocio. One look and their clinical pace was enough to unsettle the bravest of batsmen.

Sarwan knew what to expect when he set foot in Australia. But he had handled Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Darren Gough, Andy Caddick and Craig White with aplomb. There was no cause for concern.

Now he is wondering where his next runs will come from. They will eventually and in profusion for such natural talent will always out.

"This will be a trying tour for him but it's the sort of tour that will make him," said Harper.

That may be true but, for the time being, it is best that he be given a break from the Perth Test and use the following matches against the Prime Minister's XI and Australia "A" to regain his equilibrium.