Hard work pays off for Bajan batsman

BRIDGETOWN: Barbadian batsman Dwayne Smith will replace injured Jamaican Marlon Samuels on the West Indies cricket team which is preparing for the opening Test of a four-match series against South Africa this week, officials said yesterday.

Smith, 20, was expected to leave his native Barbados for South Africa tomorrow. West Indies Cricket Board official Derrick Nicholas confirmed the change in a telephone interview in Antigua. Samuels is suffering from a recurring knee problem, officials said. “I really wanted to make the West Indies team and I am  happy that I am there now,” Smith said. “It’s a great feeling. I’ve been working hard at my game and the selection shows hard work pays off.” He called it a “dream come true.”

Smith is a right-handed batsman and medium-pace bowler. He is also a member of the local YMCA cricket club in southern Barbados. After playing two seasons for Barbados, Smith scored 102 against the Leeward Islands in Anguilla in the 2002 Busta Cup. He averaged 24.55 in eight Carib Beer Series matches last year and had one notable innings in the Red Stripe Bowl in October — an unbeaten 92, with nine sixes, against Guyana in the first round. “In the Red Stripe Bowl, I was working with Corey Collymore and coach Henderson Springer,” Smith said. “They were giving me good advice and it is working now.”