It doesn’t pay to rile Samuels, the smoothest streetfighter
Garfield Robinson finds out that confrontation gets the competitive juices flowing for West Indies star Marlon Samuels – as many have discovered
Ifirst knew that Marlon Samuels would give no quarter in any contest when, as a 19-year-old on his first tour, he slapped Shane Warne for four, ran down the pitch and said a few words to the great leg-spinner. This was Shane Warne, remember, already a legend, a spinner with a fast bowler’s aggression, known to be capable of intimidating even seasoned campaigners.
Warne had earlier addressed the young man. Hitting the great bowler to the boundary before joining in the conversation was his way of responding. This, we have come to know, is Samuels’ nature. It is the kind of player, and, I suspect, the kind of man that he is.
He has never been one to recoil from any on-field skirmish. Pushed into the lion’s den at such a youthful age, he had to fight on cricket’s toughest battlefield.
Led by the snarling Glenn McGrath, Australia’s bowling attack regularly ran roughshod over batting units that confronted them on their own grounds. And with West Indies’ glory days gone by then, the Caribbean challengers, despite the presence of batting wizard Brian Lara, were not expected to fare all that well.
Samuels would have had some notion of the peril that lay in wait. About four years earlier, his elder brother Robert was himself immersed in the hostile environment maintained by Mark Taylor’s men when he opened the innings in four games of the West Indies’ 1996-97 fiveTest tour. His 76 in Perth, batting for 332 minutes and facing 228 deliveries, was a significant triumph under the circumstances, but the left-hander reported that the chatter in the middle was so crude that he sometimes wondered if he was being sternly lectured on some topic having to do with sex.
But, if Robert was calm and diffident in the face of provocation, his younger brother was composed, confident, com- bative. He replied to whatever chatter the Australians hurled in his direction and played his strokes with the fluency and poise that suggested a player more experienced and more accomplished than a teenager on his first tour with only a handful of first-class games to his name.
The West Indies middle-order player recently turned in two sparking displays – 92 and 125 – against Australia in the current Tri-Series in the Caribbean involving South Africa, both earning him man-of-the-match awards. In both games there were words flying about in the middle, something Samuels argues, serves as motivation for him.“I’ve been saying that over the years,” Samuels said.
“Most times I come out to bat and nobody has anything to say, I don’t perform that well. But when somebody has something to say, I want to stay out there longer and see how long they can talk.”
One of Samuels’ greatest moments in cricket came in the finals of the 2016 T20 World Cup in Kolkata when his 66-ball 85 saw his side through to a thrilling victory. The batting stylist cited England allrounder Ben Stokes’ verbal offensive as a source of encouragement.“Well, he doesn’t learn. I didn’t even face a ball and he had so much to say to me that I knew I had to be right there at the end ... again. That’s what I thrive on.”
It was this same Ben Stokes that had a running battle with Samuels during the second Test of England’s 2015 tour of the West Indies. The batsman made a watchful 103, eschewing his normally free-scoring ways to guide his side to some respectability, although England eventually won. He appeared determined to put up a good showing after donating his wicket cheaply in the second innings of the first Test and Stokes might have helped him to focus more fiercely.
Later, when Stokes was dismissed for a low score he had to endure an elaborate send-off salute from the batsman – a moment of mirth for some, but one of acute disappointment for those who find send-offs too distasteful to see any humour in the incident.
Samuels’ first tour of South Africa (2007-08) was something of a high water mark of his career to that point. Then regarded as someone who failed to fulfil his early promise – a charge that continues to plague him – he was able to repel a formidable fast bowling attack and a hostile environment, to rack up a few good scores.
Unexpectedly, the West Indies won the first Test at Port Elizabeth, Samuels’ fighting innings of 94 and 40 earning him the man-of-the-match prize.“I felt like a warrior,” he said of his time on the middle.
But then disaster struck shortly afterwards. Interactions with a bookmaker on an earlier tour of India was found to be in breach of the ICC Code of Conduct. The upshot was that in May 2008, Samuels was slapped with the minimum mandatory two-year ban from the sport, though the panel that looked into the matter felt the punishment too harsh. Players are indeed prohibited from “receiving money, benefit or other reward which could bring him or the game of cricket into disrepute”, but the panel found no proof the player provided information.
Samuels, along with others such as Michael Holding, maintains there was nothing nefarious about his actions. And so being barred from playing the game he dedicated his life to and earned a living from, during what might have been his peak years, must have been traumatic.
But “that which does not kill us makes us stronger”, according to German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Samuels
Well, Ben Stokes doesn’t learn. I didn’t even face a ball and he had so much to say to me that I knew I had to be right there at the end .. again. That’s what I thrive on
returned to cricket intent on being more focused on the game and on his family. He scored loads of runs in the regional firstclass competition and it didn’t take long for him to hit his strides when he regained his place in the West Indies side.
On tour of England in 2012 Samuels excelled, averaging a staggering 97.6 in the three Tests. He spent a lot of time at the crease much of it engaged in verbal sparring, mainly with Jimmy Anderson. Samuels made 117 in the first innings of the second Test at Trent Bridge. As he was going along merrily in the second innings the bowlers offered a few words. “Shut up,” the batsman reprimanded, “I’m going to get back-to-back hundreds.” The innings ended with him unbeaten on 76.
Samuels made another 76 in the third Test, scuffling this time with Graham Onions, earning a place in the side and apparently inheriting sparring duties from Anderson, who didn’t play. This prompted a rather hilarious jab from Samuels in a post-play interview. “Onions? Well, he has a few things to say. Give me back Jimmy Anderson. I don’t like Onions. I don’t use it in my food.”
Pakistan batting legend Javed Miandad wrote in his autobiography, Cutting
Edge: “As far as I was concerned, cricket was war and I was at war whenever I played.”
Similarly, but despite his apparently cool exterior and relaxed manner, Samuels likes it when there is a certain kind of edginess in the middle. He likes it when it becomes something of a scrap, when the environment is tinged with some degree of acrimony. It brings out the warrior in him and has helped spur him to some of his greatest triumphs.
If Samuels is honest, he’d agree that he has not achieved as much as his substantial talents warranted.Yet on his best days he is as good as the game’s finest players. Effortlessness and elegance may be the hallmark of his batting, but when there is hostility in the air, there are few players you’d rather have on your side than Marlon Samuels.
He’s the smoothest street fighter around.