THE storm that has broken over Jermaine Lawson has been gathering for some time.
Now the reputation of the fastest and most exciting West Indian bowler since his fellow Jamaican, Patrick Patterson, is being besmirched because blinkered administrators refused to acknowledge there was a problem with his action in his formative years and did nothing to help him.
The issue is compounded by the International Cricket Council’s convoluted handling of the issue of throwing that has allowed several bowlers, more established and famous than Lawson, who clearly contravene the relevant law to continue unhindered.
It does not address the heart of the matter but West Indians are within their rights to wonder why Lawson should now be questioned while others, like the even more threatening Shoaib Akhtar and Brett Lee and the Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitheran, have been cleared on the specious grounds that they were born with defective elbow joints.
They might also wonder why the Australian press should only have raised the issue after Lawson’s devastating seven wickets in the first innings of the last Test of the series.
And why there should be a fuss at all when there has been no report on Lawson’s action by the four umpires who have stood in the series or by others in his previous Tests in India and Bangladesh last year.
Yet there can be no doubt that the young Jamaican’s action is questionable and that his elbow does bend in delivery. It is visible to the naked eye, even more so through television replays. When I drew attention to it four years ago, in these pages after the annual under-19 West Indies tournament in Barbados, the protective Jamaican team management accused me of wanting to undermine Lawson’s confidence and future.
It was, of course, quite the opposite but that is the way of the human nature. Here is what I wrote then and it remains applicable now:
“The fastest, and most successful, (of the fast bowlers) was the Jamaican Jermaine Lawson, but there was a lot of informed muttering about his action. It was not baseless, for there is a kink in the elbow but it is nothing that cannot be readily corrected.
“Throwing is one of cricket’s most emotional subjects and, before young Lawson gets embroiled in it, his coaches need to work with him.
“Henry Olonga, the young Zimbabwean, had the problem and was called in his debut Test. In no time, the coaches straightened him out without any loss of pace and he has remained a regular member of the attack.
“There is no reason why the pacy and promising Lawson cannot be similarly fixed.”