Lawson
COLOMBO, CMC:
TEENAGE fast bowler Jermaine Lawson will make his first limited-overs international appearance for West Indies when they face Sri Lanka at the Premadasa Stadium in the third match of their tri-nation series today.
The 19-year-old Lawson has been picked ahead of Marlon Black for the West Indies' second match which they will need to win to retain interest in the series that also involves Zimbabwe, who beat them by four wickets on Sunday.
Lawson had been a replacement after Reon King returned to the Caribbean with a hernia, but West Indies manager Ricky Skerritt sees his selection in the broader picture of the future development of West Indies cricket.
"I think this is an opportunity for us to expose a few more players and let the captain and coach see what material we have out there," Skerritt told the CMCsports radio programme yesterday.
"We want to do well in this series and we are still expecting to get through to the final, but it's another opportunity to see some new players to whom we can look for the future."
Skerritt is well aware that with all three teams playing each other twice, West Indies will need to defeat Sri Lanka on Tuesday to keep alive their hopes of qualification for the final.
"It's going to be very challenging match because we are playing against a Sri Lanka side that's at the top of its game," he said.
"We just have not been batting very well and we need to get a start because we have not had an opening partnership bigger than 15 runs in either the Tests or the first limited-overs international, so we just have to bat much better.
"The encouraging thing is that we defended our small total very well against Zimbabwe, though we lost. The bowlers, as inexperienced as they are, fought very hard, so as long as we get a good score on the board, I think we have a chance."
Skerritt reminded, however, West Indies had lost two of their preliminary matches in their previous limited-overs series in Zimbabwe last July, but returned to beat India in the final and take the Championship.
West Indies XI:
Carl Hooper (captain), Daren Ganga, Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Brian Lara, Marlon Samuels, Ridley Jacobs, Neil McGarrell, Jermaine Lawson, Pedro Collins, Corey Collymore.
