Lincoln Roberts

One of two surprises on this team selected for the first Test, Roberts has the look of class about him. Perhaps one of the few younger batsmen in the Caribbean who actually has the mature potential-full look. He has played very successfully for T&T over the last three years and in 1999, he is averaging 51 in the regional competitions with an aggregate of 255 from five innings. He made a massive 151 against the Leeward Islands earlier this year.

If there is some concern about Roberts, it is the fact that he seldom seems to be able to convert very good starts, 20's and 30's ,to really big scores. In the recent game before the Test, he was going guns on 38, including six 4's, when he played around a McGrath half volley and lost his middle stump. His disappointment was very visible.

Like the imaginative Manchester United soccer player, Dwight Yorke, Roberts actually comes from the sister island of Tobago. Players from that island are normally treated like distant cousins in this supposedly even existence of Trinidad & Tobago. If he actually makes the final XI, Tobago would probably name a monument in his honor and suggest a national holiday, perhaps without the permission of the larger and supposedly more important Trinidad.

As a sometimes off-spinner, he has been a useful change for the T&T team. Does not normally bowl much but when the chips are down, he holds his own. Has been known to take some good catches in the gully area. This young man, who has only recently graduated from the Under 19 segments of the cricket, could, like his compatriot Darren Ganga, certainly become a force in the future. (Colin Croft, March 1999)