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by Sa'adi Thawfeeq reporting from Kandy

KANDY, Thursday - Nineteen-year-old Jamaican fast bowler Jermaine Lawson who is not new to Sri Lankan conditions will replace the injured Reon King in the West Indies tour party for the rest of the Sri Lanka leg.

West Indies team manager Ricky Skerritt said today that Lawson will be arriving in Sri Lanka tomorrow (Friday) and joining the team later the same day.

Skirritt said that fast bowler Reon King left for the West Indies today where he will undergo surgery for hernia.

Lawson represented West Indies in the under 19 World Cup held in Sri Lanka in 2000 and also toured England with the West Indies under 19 side last summer.

Lawson burst into the West Indies regional scene during the 1999 under 19 tournament in Barbados where he consistently bowled batsmen with sheer pace. The youthful speedster made his first-class debut for West Indies O'B' in the Busta Cup 2000 series, but has yet to represent Jamaica in a regional first-class match. He also spent six weeks at the Commonwealth Bank Cricket Academy in Western Australia. "We have opted for Lawson because of the tremendous potential he has displayed over the years and in the 2001 Red Stripe bowl. The selectors were left with very little option since Cameron Cuffy, who himself had to return from the tour of Zimbabwe earlier this year is still recovering from injury, and Nixon Mclean is unavailable in South Africa," West Indies chairman of selectors Mike Findlay was quoted in the WICBC website. When it first came to be known that King was suffering from hernia and could miss the second Test in Kandy, the diagnosis was that King could play on. But King indicated to the team management that he was feeling some discomfort following the team's net session on Tuesday. A final decision to replace him was made after the bowler was omitted from the line-up for the on-going second Test.

King subsequently saw two doctors in Sri Lanka, both of whom diagnosed the onset of a pelvic hernia, but advised that he could continue to take full part in the tour and have surgery on his return to the Caribbean.

Following discussions among the team's management, captain Carl Hooper and King himself, the player is returning to the Caribbean to undergo the required surgery which is certain to put him out of cricket for approximately four weeks while he recuperates. 

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