BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Barbados’ selectors have defined a new role for out-of-favour West Indies batsman Dwayne Smith and it is not in the four-day team of the future.
The 27-year-old will only be considered for the shorter forms of the game, as selectors move towards a youth policy with the aim of rebuilding the national side.
“Dwayne is still in our plans. At the present time, Dwayne will be preferred at the one-day level and the T20,” chairman of selectors, George Linton told the Weekend Nation newspaper here.
“He will still feature. Although we are playing these youngsters, we have to let them know that performance will count. You can’t just go in and don’t perform. There are other young players waiting in the wings.”
Smith was this week left out of the 13-man squad for Barbados’ opening match of the Regional First Class Championship against Trinidad and Tobago starting next week in Port of Spain. This was despite his good form in the recent Caribbean Twenty20 Championships where he scored 156 runs at an average of 39, with two half-centuries. Linton, a former Barbados leg-spinner, said the aim was to get a new generation of players onto the regional circuit.
“My main concern is to expose players to the West Indies level. It is time that we get some players out there and give them the opportunity to perform and let the selectors see what we have,” he explained.
“Winning is not the ultimate goal for me – not when you are picking so many young players and looking to expose them.
“You might win if you can get the team gelling quickly, but my aim is to expose these players, give them every opportunity to be seen by the West Indies selectors and the public.”
Smith has not played for West Indies since being dropped following the first One-Day International against Zimbabwe in Guyana last March. He has not played Test cricket in five years.
In recent time, the energetic all-rounder has come to be known as a Twenty20 specialist, with stints for Indian Premier League side Deccan Chargers, Australian state outfit New South Wales and English county Sussex.
