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( L - R )Jermaine Lawson and Darren Powell - FILE PHOTOS
BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA, CMC
EVER CONSCIOUS OF not falling into the same unforgiving trap of complacency that has sent the West Indies into a 10-year downward spiral, influential figures in Australian cricket are looking enviously at the visiting Caribbean side's battery of young fast bowlers.
Although they have yet to achieve the level of fitness, consistency and discipline necessary to become real world-beaters, the trio of Jermaine Lawson, Tino Best and Fidel Edwards - none of whom has yet reached his 25th birthday - are causing some here to wonder if Australian coach Bennett King can mould them into a potent triumvirate in the very near future.
West Indies captain Shivnarine Chanderpaul certainly hopes so.
"We've got some young bowlers, probably not as experienced as the English bowlers," he noted yesterday.
Chanderpaul drew a few comparisons with the four-pronged pace attack that played such a key role in England's regaining of the Ashes so famously from the Australians less than two months ago.
"Hopefully they can get a run on this tour, and if they do, probably things might go our way," he said.
It may seem hopelessly optimistic for the visiting captain to think that a trio of players with a combined 41 Tests and 121 wickets can so rattle the mighty Australians as to topple the home team and reclaim the Frank Worrell Trophy in the three-Test series, beginning next Thursday at the Gabba.
THUNDERBOLTS
But at least there are youthful West Indian pace prospects, a commodity that is in very short supply in Australia, especially since 22-year-old South Australian Shaun Tait suffered a serious shoulder injury three weeks ago that will keep him out of action until the new year.
Former Test wicketkeeper Rod Marsh, who has just returned to head the Australian Cricket Academy in Adelaide again after a highly successful four-year stint at the helm of the England & Wales Cricket Board's version, has immediately noticed the dearth of young pacers in his homeland.
"It would be nice to think that we would be seeing some young fast bowlers around," he said.
"I've seen Tait, but I haven't seen any others for four years, so I don't know what's around," he admitted. "In the end, that's what wins you Test matches."
Marsh should know, having stood what seemed closer to the sightscreen than the stumps, often flying left and right to collect the thunderbolts from Jeff Thomson and Dennis Lillee as Australia mauled England 4-1 and then the West Indies 5-1 at home in the 1970s.
He and his teammates were then on the receiving end as first Clive Lloyd and then Vivian Richards unleashed a battery of world-class fast bowlers on the Aussies and all other opponents that went a long way to making the Caribbean side of the 1980s and early 1990s arguably the most irresistible force the game has ever known.
It is decidedly optimistic to start comparing Lawson, Best, and Edwards with any of their predecessors from that dominant era, but if the trio, along with wily 28-year-old Corey Collymore and determined 27-year-old Darren Powell can play to their full potential in the next month, West Indian fans may actually dare to hope for the future.
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