A frequently asked question when West Indies visited India late in the year was why the man who had looked at home against Australia in Australia as a 19-year-old - who, at that point, had not even played for his state - could no longer fit in the XI. Marlon Samuels eventually got a chance in the last Test at Kolkata, his first international of the year. He was almost sent back halfway through it for having broken the team curfew to be at a disco, but he finished it as the maker of a wonderful maiden century. Yet that was nothing to the 72-ball hundred in the one-dayer at Vijayawada, an innings of such thunderous grace that many experts, including Viv Richards, rated it as among the most best they had seen. Instead of a triumphant exult, Samuels acknowledged that century by grimly waving a little red scrap of cloth. It was a gift from the original survivor, Steve Waugh - a piece of his lucky handkerchief. Samuels has a fire, and in 2002, he rekindled it. Rahul Bhattacharya

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