Marlon Samuels v Javagal Srinath | 20 Runs in an Over at Vijayawada | Westindies Tour India 2002

#birthday #indiavswi #wivsind #indiancricket Marlon Samuels, born today, was talented enough at the start of his career to be compared to Viv Richards, before he had played first-class cricket. He scored his maiden hundred in Kolkata in 2002 but struggled with his discipline off the field. In 2007, Samuels was embroiled in a match-fixing controversy after the Nagpur police alleged he had passed on match-related information to an alleged bookie. In 2008, after his bowling action was deemed illegal, Samuels was found guilty of match-fixing and banned for two years. Fifteen years later, he received another ban, this time for six years, for corrupt behaviour during the Abu Dhabi T10 in 2019. Samuels returned from his first ban in 2011, and in England in 2012, against a top-class bowling attack in difficult conditions, scored 386 runs in five innings. Later that year his gutsy 78 in the T20 World Cup final helped West Indies to their first world title since the 1979 World Cup. He made a Test-best 260 in November that year in Bangladesh, but only two 100-plus scores in 20 Tests thereafter. In 2015 he was banned from bowling for a year when his action was found to be illegal once again. In 2016, history repeated itself when Samuels once again helped West Indies win the T20 World Cup final.