– WICB sets new standards for team selection
Selection to the West Indies team will be based in future primarily on stringent statistical standards presently well beyond the capacity of all but a couple of players.
The new initiative was announced by West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) chief executive Donald Peters in an address to graduates of Trinidad and Tobago’s High Performance Centre in Trinidad on Sunday.
“If you decide that you are an opening batsman, we will expect you to occupy the crease for at least 75 per cent of the time you go to bat and your batting average will be between 40 to 60 over at least 10 first class matches,” he was quoted as saying in yesterday’s Trinidad Guardian.
“If you are a top order batsman we will expect you to have a batting average that is consistent with international players at that level/position,” he added
As such, he indicated that selectors would be guided by a first-class average that “should be similar” to that of Mike Hussey, Ricky Ponting, Kumar Sangakkara, Kevin Pietersen, Virender Sehwag and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, all established internationals batsmen with Test averages of close to or above 50.
“I know that we are asking a lot, but remember that we are going to be competing against those very same players and in fact we used to be the team with those same averages,” Peters said. “We were the Sobers, the Viv Richards, the Lloyd., the Greenidge, the Haynes, the Kanhai and the Lara, so we know it can be done.” Of those batsmen in the 2008 regional Carib Beer Series, only two with more than 10 first-class matches had first-class averages above 40 – Shivnarine Chanderpaul at 53.12 from 228 matches and Chris Gayle at 43.27 from 147 matches.
Ramnaresh Sarwan was next with 38.69 from 171 matches, less than his 40.4 average in Tests. Several others with Test experience were in the low 30s.
Peters revealed that the WICB intends to introduce a regional professional league with an increased number of first-class matches and with foreign players included in the various teams.
He did not elaborate.
He praised the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB) youth development programme, identifying it as a model for all cricket organisations the region should follow.
“They are working with their youth and developing them into international players and we applaud them,” he said.