Marlon Samuels made a couple of revelations at the Sydney Cricket Ground yesterday that opened the secret to his surge in recent form and exposed the knowledge of his cricketing history.
The 34-year-old stylish batsman, who has emerged as the West Indies leading player in all three formats recently, says that he continues to work hard at his game and be consistent because he is not as “lucky” as some other players.
“There have been times when I will still score a half century in between but then find myself out the team. I am not like others where they continue to play despite, failure, failure, and failure. I have to get runs or I am out the team,” Samuels told the Express ahead of their clash with South Africa at the ICC Cricket World Cup.
The West Indies vice-captain scored a measured, unbeaten 133 – his highest ODI knock, in the last game of the World Cup against Zimbabwe at Canberra.
He had a front row seat to Chris Gayle’s record 215 as he was second fiddle in a world record partnership of 372. The pair broke the previous highest partnership record which was held by Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid.
“It was really my best ODI knock given the fact that I was involved in that record. To have a record that was held by Sachin Tendulkar, who is my favourite batsman, means so much to me.
“I am in good form and Chris (Gayle) was not scoring runs, so I just gave him the strike and took my game down for a bit, before taking it up again in the end and it worked out well for us.”
Now averaging over 30 in each three formats, he confessed that he only started following World Cup cricket after he made his debut in 2000.
“For me it was all about football before cricket. I only started following the World Cup when I started playing, but cricket is such a joy for me, it took over my love for playing football, plus I had some injuries.
“I can’t say I was a follower of World Cups before that, but since I have started playing there have been many memorable moments and we want to make a special one this year.”
Samuels has also been chosen as vice-captain to Jason Holder insists that he is getting assistance from the entire team, contrary to beliefs that he wasn’t.
“He (Jason) is a young man and has to learn on the job. We as senior players are here to guide him and assist where necessary but he has to learn from being in the job and take it from there.”
The West Indies were scheduled to play the South Africans starting 11.30 last night, (T&T time).
