Paul-Andre Walker, Staff Reporter

RAMNARESH SARWAN is clearly a good batsman but is he good enough to be the West Indies' number three at this point?

When Sarwan initially became the West Indies' number three batsman, there was much talk about him not being ready for that role and talk that Brian Lara should remain in that position.

However, recently there has been another line of thought from the many 'experts' on cricket.

That line of argument proposes that Lara is getting old and doesn't have the reflexes to play high-class fast bowling early in an innings.

Hogwash! Lara is the best player in the West Indies line-up and should allow himself as many overs as possible to get big scores in the one-day version of the game.

Recently, he has been starting his innings more slowly than in his younger days and so even moreso now than before, he needs to come in early.

As for his reflexes, I saw Lara dispatching a marginally short 92 mile an hour delivery from Australian strike bowler Shaun Tait yesterday in a fashion which suggests his reflexes are fine.

Furthermore, I was listening to Jeffrey Dujon speak about Sarwan's technique not being suitable for the number three position.

"He gets out too many times caught behind and in the slips," 'Duj' had remarked as one of the justifications for his viewpoint.

While I'm not certain if where he gets out is good enough reason to come to that conclusion, I still agree with the former West Indies wicketkeeper.

Sarwan seems to have lost the ability to play with soft hands and comes on the front foot with a pretty forceful bat.

This means two things. One: he won't have the ability to rotate the strike when the bowling is tight and the fielders are close in, as is usually the case early in an innings, and two: he won't be able to adjust to the moving ball very well, which is the reason he gets out caught in the slips so often.

Decent player of spin

Sarwan is a decent player of spin and has a good head on his shoulders and should shepherd the lower-middle order in the same fashion Lara does and Shivnarine Chanderpaul has done in the past.

Added to that opinion is the fact that this is the World Cup, the last that Lara will play. The game is made to entertain crowds and there is no greater entertainer at the Caribbean's inaugural hosting of the event.

With that as another reason, the batsmen should switch roles.

There is also the argument that Lara, being on his way out of cricket - and certainly the one-day version of it is over for him after the World Cup - is finding a way to develop the cricketers around him.

Going along that same line of thought, people have been proposing that to move Sarwan from his number three position and replacing him with Lara would be detrimental to the youngster's confidence and stifle his development.

Again, hogwash! Please remember, for those of you who are into pampering these players long after their mothers, Sarwan is quite likely to be the next West Indies captain.

He, more than anybody else, should understand the importance of employing the right strategies. As a matter of fact, Sarwan bats at number four for Guyana, which is some indication that he prefers to bat further down anyway.

Marlon Samuels seems to be getting comfortable at the number four position and so I wouldn't move him either.

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