Hero Smith doubtful for Fourth Test

CENTURION: Dwayne Smith, the West Indies cricket hero of the drawn Third Test against South Africa, is a doubtful starter for the final Test beginning at Centurion Park tomorrow. According to published reports out of South Africa, the 20-year-old Barbadian batsman is still experiencing pain from a  dislocated finger and there are doubts that he can even hold a bat properly. The right-handed Smith, who smashed a century on debut while batting with the injury, sat out the recent tour match against Easterns in Benoni and captain Lara is hoping he will be available for the fourth and final Test.  “Hopefully Dwayne will be able to grip the bat,” said West Indies captain Brian Lara after fielding practice at Centurion yesterday. “That’s the most important thing.” Lara added that they would only consider employing Smith as an extra seamer once it was certain that he could actually hold a bat. In Cape Town, Smith cut a piece from his glove to accommodate the injured digit. The uncertainty surrounding Smith’s availability comes days after another batsman, Wavell Hinds, was ruled out of the rest of the tour with a groin injury.

Hinds became the fourth West Indian to return to the Caribbean after Jerome Taylor, Omari Banks and Marlon Samuels. “A few guys are still injured,” commented Lara, “but we’re expecting a wholehearted effort from everybody, with both the bat and the ball and in the field. Statistically, the series might be dead but we still want to improve a lot. We started the new year positively by drawing at Newlands and winning against Easterns and we want to continue with that improvement.” “We’ve got a lot of cricket in front of us this year so it’s important that we start positively and continue,” Lara added. Apart from suffering a severe bout of food poisoning, the Windies also saw Ramnaresh Sarwan and Daren Ganga depart the field after being struck while fielding. “Daren will be okay, there’s no problem there,” said Lara. “Ramnaresh is taking it slow, but he’s played every game since Zimbabwe and he still has the one- dayers in front of him. You’ve got to commend that effort. He’ll definitely play on Friday though. His knee is okay.”