A YOUNG, unproven, little-known off-spinner from Anguilla was yesterday summoned by the West Indies selectors to join the 14 from whom the eleven will be chosen for the second Cable & Wireless Test, starting at the Queen’s Park Oval on Saturday.
The surprise choice of Omari Banks, a tall 20-year-old with 14 first-class matches and 33 expensive wickets to his name, makes him the first player from his tiny Leeward island to be chosen for a Test.
Banks and vice-captain Ramnaresh Sarwan, put out of action for the past five weeks because of ligament damage to his right index finger, are the only additions to the 13 from the first Test that the West Indies lost by nine wickets at Bourda on Monday.
But fitness concerns remain over Sarwan as well as first test century- maker Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ridley Jacobs, who were both injured during the Bourda Test.
Jacobs has been named among the 15 announced last night but a decision on whether his pulled left groin muscle is sufficiently recovered for a five day Test will not be made until Friday night or Saturday morning.
Carlton Baugh, the 20-year-old Jamaican who was in the 14 for the first Test, would make his debut if Jacobs, as seems likely given his distress while batting in the second innings on Sunday, is kept out.
Sarwan indicated in a radio interview yesterday that his injury was still not fully healed.
He said his left hand got “a little stiff and tired” after he batted in the nets over the previous three days but he put that down to his lengthy layoff.
“I’m hoping that it’s back to normal over the next few days and be ready for Saturday,” he said.
Chanderpaul was felled by a blow to the inside of the knee from fast bowler Andy Bichel that ended his brilliant, even first innings 100 at Bourda, preventing him from fielding and forcing him to bat with a runner in the second innings.
Coach Gus Logie said Sunday the five days leading up to the Test should be ample time for him to be fully fit.
There is still no room for previously entrenched opener Chris Gayle, omitted from the first Test following but, according to captain Brian Lara, not because of his preference for the double-wicket World Cup tournament in St.Lucia over Jamaica’s Carib Beer Series final against Barbados.
Banks, Baugh, 21-year-old left-handed opener Devon Smith, who gained his first cap at Bourda, and fast bowler Jermaine Lawson have all advanced from the West Indies youth team to England two years ago.
Banks is preferred to several contenders for a position that has always been tenuous in a team that holds fast to the principle of a pace-based attack, whether as strong as it used to be or as weak as it now is.
In his first full domestic season with the Leewards this year, Banks, also a useful batsman, scored 270 runs (average 33.75) and claimed 25 wickets (average 36.4) in the Carib Beer Series.
Although his choice has come like a bolt from the blue, Clyde Butts, the Guyanese off-spinner who played seven Tests for the West Indies in the 1980s, yesterday described him as “the most promising off-spinner” he had seen during the season.
“He is tall, gets good turn and bounce and has pretty good control,” Butts said. “He’s a very useful batsman as well and one for the future.”
Chief selector Sir Viv Richards and his colleagues clearly see him as one for the present.
There are others who would have been considered.
Gareth Breese, the 27-year-old Jamaican all-rounder, was the last specialist spinner chosen, for his solitary Test against India in Chennai last October when his match figures of two for 125 were spoiled by a couple of missed chances.
He might have expected another chance after scoring 355 runs at 37.22 and taking 28 wickets at 22.85 in the Carib Beer Series.
Given the selectors are no longer recycling those who have already had their chance, such as the left-arm spinner Neil McGarrell and the leg-spinners Mahendra Nagamootoo and Dinanath Ramnarine, their other younger options would have been Suliemann Benn and Dave Mohammed, both left-armers.
Benn, the tall, orthodox finger spinner, had 28 wickets in seven matches for Carib Beer Series double champions Barbados at 19.14 each. The back-of-the-hand spin of Mohammed, a midget by comparison with Benn, gained him 13 wickets (at 21.46) in three matches for Trinidad and Tobago.
Marlon Samuels’ casual, cheap dismissals in both innings of the first test and his carelessness that could have cost Chanderpaul his wicket while he was his runner are likely to cost him his place if both Sarwan and Chanderpaul are fit.
The selectors have not changed the four fast bowlers who, with the exception of Vasbert Drakes with his five first innings wickets, were ineffective and lethargic on the lifeless pitch at Bourda.
The question continues to be how can the West Indies claim 20 wickets on reasonable pitches against opponents such as Australia in any Test?
In their last 16 Tests, against Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India, New Zealand and Australia and not counting two against Bangladesh that are such in name only, they have conceded one total over 600, two over 500 and five over 450.
A host of fast bowlers - and fast bowling combinations - have been tried and have rarely worked. Now the selectors have turned to a young spinner to see what he can do.
The squad: Brian Lara (captain), Wavell Hinds, Devon Smith, Daren Ganga, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Marlon Samuels, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ridley Jacobs, Carlton Baugh, Vasbert Drakes, Omari Banks, Merv Dillon, Pedro Collins, Jermaine Lawson, Dave Bernard.