MARSHALLBRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC:
WEST INDIES cricket coach Bennett King has his eyes on emerging Jamaican batting talent Xavier Marshall and has earmarked him as one of the players who can have a bright future in West Indies cricket.
King said Wednesday that the 18-year-old Young West Indies player possessed all the right elements, which had the potential to make him a very good player, especially in the limited overs form of the game.
"He's got time. He's certainly an exciting player at the crease," King explained.
He added: "I like the fact that he tries to score off every ball that he faces and I like his attitude from an 18-year-old. Certainly he showed his youth in the camp but how he mixed with the adults showed me that he has got a cricket maturity, not necessarily an adult maturity but a cricket maturity."
ONLY SURPRISE
Marshall was the only surprise among the 14-member West Indies squad, which was named to contest the VB Triangular Limited Overs series with world champions Australia and Pakistan in Australia.
The right-hander had a prolific President's Cup One Day tournament in October, slamming 325 runs, including a sparkling, unbeaten 125 against Guyana.
One of the 25 players invited to the West Indies training camp in Barbados, King was impressed by what he saw.
"Just what he does in the field as well is exceptional, he hits the wickets a lot," King pointed out.
He added: "I'm not saying that he is ready to play for the West Indies just at the moment but I certainly see the characteristics that you want to see in a cricketer."
King also thinks Marshall has the ideal approach to the shortened version of the game, in view of his frenetic scoring.
"Particularly in the one day game from a batting perspective, some of those characteristics of his ability is to score off balls, not the boundary hitting but just the ability to score off balls," King noted.
He continued: "We look at the game in a different way now well I certainly do and from a statistical point of view, I don't look at runs per over that are scored, I look at how many balls they score off per over and he certainly is high up on that list."
Marshall, along with Jamaicans Chris Gayle, Wavell Hinds and Marlon Samuels, left Kingston Wednesday for London to join the other members of the West Indies team.
