KEY POINTS:
It is a revealing statistic that since Courtney Walsh delivered his 30,019th, and last, ball in test cricket just over five years ago, the West Indies have used 16 fast bowlers in a futile attempt to maintain the heritage for which their cricket is best known.
Walsh, the tall, tireless, loose-limbed Jamaican who gathered 519 wickets in a career spanning 17 years and 132 tests, and his pitiless partner, Curtly Ambrose, were the last in a fast-bowling line dating back to Learie Constantine, George Francis, Herman Griffith and Manny Martindale before World War II.
It reached its peak in the dominant eighties when captain Clive Lloyd used Joel Garner, Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Colin Croft and Malcolm Marshall with chilling effect.
But since then it has declined so rapidly that opposing teams have gleefully exacted revenge for earlier indignities.
Young bowlers have emerged with the speed and hostility to excite expectations. Tino Best, Fidel Edwards and Jermaine Lawson have been consistently clocked at more than of 145km/h but Edwards and Best have only occasionally matched performance with speed and Lawson's dubious action has cost him pace and his place in the team.
In the past nine months Jerome Taylor, 22, has emerged as the latest, and most realistic, hope to at last fill the breach left by Walsh, his fellow Jamaican. In six tests, three against India at home, three against Pakistan away, he claimed 27 wickets at 28 runs apiece. His reputation was established in the Champions Trophy in India in October when his pace, accuracy and movement earned him a hat-trick against eventual champions Australia, made him the leading wicket-taker with 13 and helped West Indies to the final.
"There's no doubt Taylor has the potential to lead the attack for the next decade," says Jeffrey Dujon, the former West Indies wicketkeeper who was Jamaica's coach when Taylor made his mark.
"He has the pace and control but, above all else, the cricket intelligence all bowlers require. And unlike some others, he doesn't get carried away by the readings on the speed gun."
His control and ability to combine speed with movement come from a relaxed approach and high delivery.
Unlike physical giants such as Wes Hall, Garner, Croft, Ambrose and Walsh, who fashioned the stereotype of the West Indies fast bowler, Taylor is just over 1.8m tall.
He was so slight in build when he was fast-tracked into his first test, two days before his 19th birthday, that bowling coach Kenny Benjamin said he needed "to get stronger to cope with the demands of test cricket".
Within two months, in his third test, the strain ended his international career for more than two years.
Intense work followed under the rugged Australian rugby trainer Bryce Cavanagh, who was engaged by West Indies. Taylor has not had an injury niggle in the past eight months and six tests.
As well as his hat-trick, his year's highlights were his 9 for 95 against India at his home ground, Sabina Park, and dismissing Ricky Ponting three times in four meetings.
But Taylor's most telling challenges come this year.
The first World Cup to be staged in the Caribbean in March is followed by tours of England, then South Africa.
It should be clear by then whether the West Indies have a great fast bowler in the making.
- INDEPENDENT
