DOES the penalty match the crime? Has Marlon Samuels been given a slap on the wrist or is the two-year ban too harsh?

It is unlikely that the International Cricket Council (ICC) will accede to the West Indies Cricket Board tribunal's consideration that Samuels be placed on probation instead of being suspended altogether, after he was found guilty on the charge that he "received money, benefit or other reward which could bring him or the game of cricket into disrepute".

The charge stemmed from the player's contact with bookmaker Mukesh Kochar prior to the first One-Day International in Nagpur on January 21, 2007.

A message had to be sent to Samuels and those who are foolhardy enough to commit any such transgression. Richie Richardson is saying the ban is too harsh, but I don't quite agree, and I feel no compassion for any modern-day player providing information on match conditions or receiving benefits of any kind from people they hardly know, given the Hansie Cronje affair and the acts of Mark Waugh and Shane Warne.

This 24-month exile will test Samuels' resolve and temperament. He must learn to accept that his scars are self-inflicted. Hopefully, he will use the time to straighten his right elbow and be more mindful whom he befriends on the Asian sub-continent.

The opening Test against Australia starts in three days in Jamaica and both he and another hometown boy, Chris Gayle, will be missing from the West Indies side. Both have modest Test records and it is their presence on the field rather than their runs that will be significant.

One thing I agree with Richardson on is that Ramnaresh Sarwan is the best man to lead us, but it is a shame he has little to work with. Much has been made about the camaraderie in the team under Gayle and it will be interesting to see if Sarwan can get that same intensity from the boys.

The biggest concern for the home team is to whom do they turn for a breakthrough when strike bowlers Jerome Taylor and Fidel Edwards are out of the attack. Surely, now, this must be a chance for a spinner to show his worth on a Sabina Park pitch that should provide bounce and turn.

If Sarwan pulls off a draw or takes the match into five days, he would have done well against a team that has the No. 1 batsman in the game in Ricky Ponting and the leading opener, Matthew Hayden. Ponting's 33 hundreds are more than the total number of hundreds by the entire West Indies side.

If the Aussie bowling has little bite outside of Brett Lee, the West Indies have only two batsmen of note – Shiv Chanderpaul and Sarwan – and both must deliver big in a brittle batting line-up.