Quincentennial Cayman Cricket Celebration organisers have announced left-handed batsman Wavell Hinds as the fifth cricketer who will be in Cayman for the weekend of July 25-27. Hinds will join Courtney Walsh and teammates Brian Lara, Chris Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan for the event which features a gala fundraising dinner on Friday, 25 July, youth clinics on Saturday, 26 July and an exhibition match on Sunday, 27 July.
Hinds has just come off his most memorable weekend on a cricket field in Grenada. In two matches he scored back-to-back hundreds, saw his team to victory over the world champions and became the only batsman in the history of One Day International cricket to bat through the innings twice.
The 26 year-old Jamaican also starred in the first West Indies ODI victory of the series in Trinidad, with a composed and measured 79. In five of the seven matches, Hinds’ 352 runs at a 117 average was better than any other batsman, enough to secure the Man of the Series prize.
After getting past 20 only once in the World Cup, and four ordinary outings in the first two test matches of the Cable & Wireless 2003 Series against Australia, the leftie was axed from the team.
The last time he suffered the same fate in the Cable & Wireless 2002 Series, he pummeled his way back in with a thunderous 175 against India in a tour match. Upon his return, Hinds fashioned a cool 65 and then a tough, match-winning 113 in front of his home crowd to set up a West Indies series win. In India several months later he slammed his first overseas ton, an even 100.
Hinds’ career began more than three years before in 2000 on the plush Queen’s Park Oval in Trinidad, alongside his longtime Jamaican brethren and sometimes fellow opener Chris Gayle. Three matches later the then 23-year old Hinds, batting at No. 3, harassed a Pakistani attack of Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Mushtaq Ahmed and Saqlain Mushtaq for a career best 165 and announced himself as a sound prospect.
A slow and unsteady front foot, hard luck from umpires and the West Indies selection panels’ wavering faith have caused him to spend his three years in international cricket in a desperate bid to prove himself worthy. It is evident in his career statistics.
Fifty-five innings in 31 test matches have brought him 1710 runs at an average which is just getting over 30. He has three centuries and 10 half centuries to his name.
Juggling in and out of the squad, up and down the batting order and a bit of off-field politics has Hinds still trying to prove himself as that quality Test batsman his first tumultuous hundred in Barbados showed him to be. He deserves credit for an average of over 40 since his return to the Test team last year though, and it is incomprehensible why doubt should be cast over him.
Nevertheless Hinds seems to have cemented his place in the West Indies One Day team with two huge exclamation marks in one magical weekend in the Spice Isle.
Always one to take life in stride, when asked about the unpredictable nature of his relationship with West Indies cricket, Wavell responds by singing a few lines from a song by Sizzla:
“They can’t keep a good man down
Always keep a smile when they want me to frown
Keep the vibes and I stood my grounds
They will never ever take my crown
Who Jah Bless I say no man curse
Things getting better when they thought it would be worse”
The Quincentennial Cayman Cricket Celebration weekend’s major sponsors are Cable & Wireless, the Cayman Islands Cricket Association, Vibe FM, Cayman Screen Print, Cayman Airways, Vision Marketing, Guinness and Red Stripe and the Marriott Beach Resort. Tickets for the gala dinner are now on sale for CI$150 per person and can be obtained from Kelly Holding Ltd. (946 8822). For more information about the weekend, log on to www.caymancricket.com.
