Lawson won’t return ‘til 2004

KINGSTON:  West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) development chief Dr Michael Seepersaud is targetting next year’s England tour of the Caribbean for the return of pacer Jermaine Lawson, the Jamaica Observer newspaper reported yesterday. Lawson has been sidelined since May when he was reported to the International Cricket Council (ICC) for a “suspect bowling action” and although not ruling out a return later this year in South Africa for the 21-year-old, Dr Seepersaud suggested that an early 2004 comeback to international cricket is very likely. Dr Seepersaud told the Observer that while the second half of the West Indies tour of southern Africa (including Zimbabwe) later this year was being seen as a “best case scenario” for Lawson’s return “our target is England in early 2004.”

Dr Seepersaud said the remedial process is “slow and difficult” and will require “hard work and determination” from Lawson, “once he makes the progress that we think he could make, the selectors would probably consider him for the South Africa tour.” “Certainly at the very worst...our (expectation for Lawson’s return to international cricket) is the England tour early 2004,” he told the Observer. The West Indies will begin their southern African tour by visiting Zimbabwe in late October to early December. They will tour South Africa in December to February and will host England from March to early May. Dr Seepersaud confirmed on Monday that arrangements were being made for Lawson to visit Queensland, Australia “as early as possible” as part of the drive to improve his bowling action both in terms of its legality and the “bio-mechanical efficiency and safety,” the Observer said. Following an assessment in Kingston using high-speed cameras on July 31, British bio-mechanics expert, Dr Paul Hurrion, and members of the WICB’s bowling review committee, decided that Lawson should do more to correct the remaining glitch in his bowling action.