Tony Becca, Contributing Editor
LIFE IS not a bed of roses, there is not a successful person who does not know that and, if he did not know it before, Jermaine Lawson, the young Jamaica and West Indies fast bowler, certainly knows it now.
A few months ago, Lawson was the talk of the cricket world, he was fast and good and after an impressive debut against India, following a fantastic spell of six wickets for three runs in a Test innings against Bangladesh, a hat-trick against Australia, and a magnificent seven for 78 also against Australia, he appeared destined to become one of the great West Indies fast bowlers.
Today, however, Lawson is out of action, and he is out of action not because he lost form, but because he was reported for throwing by the umpires during the fourth and final Test against Australia in May and because the International Cricket Council ruled that he corrects his action and that he would not be allowed to play until they were satisfied that his action did not contravene the rules.
LAWSON FAILED ICC TEST
In August, Lawson failed the ICC test, and in a bid to correct his action, the West Indies Board sent him to Australia where, for 18 days, he was under the expert guidance of Daren Holder in Brisbane.
Unlike Pakistan's Shaoib Akhtar and Australia's Brett Lee who suffered the same fate, Lawson's return is taking a long time and West Indies fans are concerned. In fact, they are worried and they want to know why the remedial process is taking so long.
The delay, it seems, is that Lawson's problem is more than his action.
According to Phillip Service, the Jamaican who is the West Indies cricket operations officer in Jamaica and who, along with former West Indies wicketkeeper/batsman, Jeffrey Dujon, has been working with Lawson, the problem has to do with his delivery, before anything could be done with his action, that had to be corrected, and that is why he was sent to Australia.
PROBLEMS
Service accompanied Lawson to Australia and, according to him, Holder detected two problems while dealing with Lawson's action.
"One is side-way leaning, which is leaning away from the stumps, which, as a right-hander, means he is leaning to his left, and one is called counter rotation, which means that between back foot impact and delivery the shoulders are rotating in an opposite direction to the hips.
"In their estimation that is the major cause for concern because based on their research the major of bowlers in Australia who have lower back problems suffer from extra counter rotation.
"So the work was centred on reducing the lateral flexion and counter rotation. They felt that by correcting the two things, the perceived illegitimate action will look better and will improve.
"At the end, judging by the naked eye and the cameras that were used, he seemed to have improved."
Apparently it was hard work - to the extent that Lawson had to visit a physiotherapist to deal with a sore back before returning home and for the next three weeks he will be dealing with that while visiting Dr. Akshai Mansingh, the physio, the trainer and the gym.
"After that, as far as bowling is concerned we will continue doing some work with him and at some time we will take a decision as to throwing him into competitive cricket. We have to test him in a competitive environment to see whether the technique, plus other things, will break down. He must play some good cricket because to prove that is now injury free and that he will be effective given the new action we have to test it on the cricket field and in a good match conditions," said Service.
PRESENT STATE OF ACTION
The important thing is what is the present state of Lawson's action?
"We have to continue making an assessment as to where he is in relation to the legitimacy of his action. That is an ongoing assessment, but from the naked eye and the technology that we have used, he is OK. We have to remember, however, that the camera that the ICC use is high speed, it is expensive to use, and we will not be using it until we are sure, very sure that he is OK."
How long will it take for Lawson to be back? No one way seems to know. The good thing is that at age 21, time is on his side and that he is taking it well.
"He is coping well," said Service. "He understands what he needs to do, he is very committed, he has been very co-operative, and he will be back."
