Sadly, almost inevitably, like Lawrence (South African rebel tour) and Everton (crack addiction), there are now explicit challenges to his character being made as considerable circumstantial evidence regarding book-making threatens to halt his finally-ascendant career.
How's it playing here? To be honest, no one seems surprised at this latest revelation of material land-grabbing, this is a member of a player's union that outrageously requested US$20,000.00 per ODI and US$11,000.00 per Test (slide ruled of course) from the WICB despite showing little ability to catch a ball much less win a match, any match. Did it take personal bets against himself to bring him into form. If so, this makes the scope of the matter even more profound.
Brian Lara has often expressed the need to personally back oneself to succeed at the highest level, this psych aspect seems to have been dismally applied here yet applied in the only way it seems his generation seems to understand the world around him.
I've written about my personal impressions about the gentleman in the past regarding his grand displays of bling and harem-development. Another matter involved a team dinner at Lara's mansion during the Aussies last visit where some of the tourists were moved to speak to the host about Samuels' crude conduct towards the help (yes, Aussies were actually appalled at a display of bad manners!). These incidents are not indictments but they are symptomatic and not uncommon for anyone with eyes in our collective society. Many theories are out there and I won't add anything more at this time but shall simply join the call for a return to the virtues of decency, modesty and hard-work for the sake of the Caribbean people, or all is lost.