Thursday, 14 July 2005

Sri Lanka vs West Indies

With a contract dispute stripping the side of its best players, the West Indies were expected to just roll over against Sri Lanka in the first test. They are not doing too badly so far however - 271/6 at stumps on the first day. Names like Denesh Ramdin, Kerry Jeremy, Deighton Butler, Narsingh Deonarine, Xavier Marshall, Runako Morton and Ryan Ramdass might not strike fear into the opposition, but they are holding up okay at the moment. For a bit of background, so bad is the strike that they have had to pick a 19 year old who has only played six matches for his domestic side (Marshall), while Cricinfo describes Morton's pedigree like this:

Fiery on and off the pitch, Runako Morton's cricket career looked to be dead in the water when he was expelled from the West Indian Academy in July 2001, for a series of regulation breaches. He refused to be bowed, however, and continued to accumulate runs for Leeward Islands in the Busta Cup. In February 2002, his penance complete, he was called into an injury-plagued West Indian squad as a replacement for Marlon Samuels, and was tipped to become one of the few Test cricketers from tiny island of Nevis. But he threw away his opportunity when he pulled out of the ICC Champions Trophy in September 2002, after lying about the death of his grandmother. His career slipped further down the pan when he was arrested in January 2004, following a stabbing incident...

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