West Indies cricket coach Ottis Gibson says that leaving out Ramnaresh Sarwan from the team for the upcoming series with Sri Lanka was a tough decision. He was speaking at a press conference in Jamaica this morning.
According to the West Indies Cricket Board, Gibson said “Leaving out a player of Sarwan’s ability – he’s done well for West Indies over his time as a player – it was a tough decision, it was a decision that took some deliberation. It came down to whether we can continue to take Sarwan on tour and then have one of our best players not available to us for selection all the time (while on tour).
“I was consulted and it took a long time to decide which way we were going to go with (Sarwan). Sars has had his issues with fitness before and the decision was taken to give him more time to get fit. I still think he’s got a lot more contributions to make to West Indies cricket and that gives him the opportunity to do the things he knows he needs to do to not just get fit but stay fit to make those contributions.
“He’s an elite athlete. That’s what cricketers are nowadays and they look after their fitness. That’s something that everybody else (in world cricket) is doing and if it is proving successful for them we have to get on board as well and our players have to understand that.”
