With West Indian attention firmly set on London and our special stars at the Olympics on track and in pool, a breathtaking individual performance in the team discipline that first established the region’s sporting excellence passed on Friday at a hallowed Caribbean cricket venue without the acclaim it truly deserved.
For nearly four-and-a-quarter hours, on a hot, steamy afternoon at Sabina Park in his native Kingston, Marlon Samuels fashioned an innings as close to perfection as is possible against New Zealand’s combination of disciplined, aggressive and purposeful seam and swing bowling on an encouraging pitch.
Without him, the West Indies would have been reduced to