The mysterious case of Marlon Samuels

Twenty one balls to get off the mark. Dropped on 27. A grinding, patient half century off 142 balls in bowler friendly conditions.

Powered ahead from 49 to 94 at exactly a run a ball. Hour upon hour of determined defence interrupted by undisciplined swishes that appear more suited to a 27 handicapper than a veteran Test batsman. More than three rain affected hours to get from 94 to 100.

A running battle with the opposition fast bowlers. A nervy spar over the slips on 99, an airswing next ball, then caught at second slip one ball later. A vocal send off from the opposition spearhead who has ended his self-imposed silence earns the bowler a talking to from the umpires.

This is not an excerpt from a match report describing the contrasting approaches of several different batsmen. These are the antics of one man. The story of the 100th Test match innings of one of the most intriguing personalities in world cricket.

Welcome to the mysterious world of Marlon Samuels.

Marlon Samuels has been around a long time. This is easily overlooked given that he plays in the same team as the ageless Shivnarine Chanderpaul, but Samuels has been around long enough to have made his Test debut alongside Courtney Walsh, in a game against Australia in Adelaide.

Jimmy Adams was the West Indies captain and the match is remembered for Brian Lara’s defiant 182 in the first innings. The West Indies lost, Marlon made 35 and 3 and claimed his first two Test wickets.

A teenager, six weeks shy of his twentieth birthday, thrown in against Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie and co. Twelve consecutive wins and counting. By the time the series ended mercifully in Sydney, the streak was up to 15 and young Marlon had made his first Test duck.

Not selected in the 5-0 debacle was another youngster who had debuted a few months earlier in March 2000, one Christopher Henry Gayle.

Since his debut on 15 December 2000, Marlon Samuels has played just 57 Tests. Gayle, seemingly forever absent from Tests either injured, partying or towing the T20 caravan, has actually played 103. Ramnaresh Sarwan also debuted in 2000 and has managed 87 Tests despite not being selected since 2011.

Nearly 15 years later and Samuels is only just about to crack the top 25 for all time appearances for the West Indies. What exactly Marlon has been up to for the last 15 years is truly a mystery.

Marlon Samuels made his first Test hundred against India in October 2002. It took twenty three innings and twenty two months to achieve this breakthrough.

His next innings a few weeks later yielded 91 against Bangladesh in Dhaka and surely great things would follow. But the runs dried up for Samuels and another Test hundred would not be achieved until January 2008.

In the lean years between these milestones there were a few glimpses but mainly only disappointments.

A maiden one day international century followed shortly after his first Test hundred but a second one was another four years in the making.

Samuels was dropped from the Test team in 2003 and wasn’t recalled until more than two years later, aged 24, for another tour of Australia in 2005. It was a tour which perhaps sums up his career better than any other.

A stunning assault on the Queensland bowlers earned him 257 in a tour match; two Tests yielded just 46 runs and an early departure due to injury. He was back in the team the next year, but only played two Tests, and another two in 2007.

At the start of 2008 Test hundred number two finally arrived against South Africa in Durban. Yet just a few months later he was gone – banned for two years for some allegedly dodgy dealings with an even allegedly dodgier bookmaker – and his actual absence from the Test team would be more than three years.

So at 34, what does the future hold for Marlon Samuels? His Test career, now into it’s 15th year, has been a wild ride. The same man who looks so calm, even disengaged at times, can explode at a moment’s notice.

The same man who took down Sri Lanka’s master death bowler Lasith Malinga to win the West Indies a World T20 final, was singled out earlier this year by then coach Stuart Williams for an “awful shot” in a Test defeat in South Africa.

Fifteen years for seven Test tons just doesn’t add up. But Chanderpaul, Misbah ul Haq, Kumar Sangakkara and Younus Khan have all played arguably their best Test cricket after 35, while Brendon Mccullum is just seven months younger than Samuels and is in career best form.

The West Indies are 1-0 down against England and they need Marlon Samuels, elder statesman to stand up. If Samuels finds consistency, and can score three Test hundreds in each of the next four years, then his numbers, and his legacy will begin to do his talent some justice.

But with Marlon Samuels, nothing has been predictable or consistent. Marlon’s magical mystery tour continues in Barbados this weekend. What happens in the next match, next innings, even next ball is anyone’s guess.

When Brian Lara retired, that 182 in Adelaide didn’t even make his top 10 high scores. Marlon has made just one score over 150 in fifteen long years.

Marlon Samuels has never made more than one century in a Test series, let alone centuries in consecutive matches.

Samuels has never scored more than 123 against a decent team. Now would be a great time to change all that.