Dear Editor,
My interest in West Indies Cricket started waning after the great Brian Charles Lara was so unceremoniously evicted from West Indies cricket. When Darren Sammy was made captain by default things were bad and we the members of the public understood how things went at the time. Ever since then, persons would wish for ways to leave Sammy out. He has never allowed anyone to put his place in doubt thus far. For some strange reason, some persons having the authority to remove Darren Sammy as captain for the fifty overs game, did so, as it might appear, without thought. My thoughts somehow told me that it was an initial move in phasing out Darren Sammy. It was very clear before the team came to Guyana that the Bravo stroke did not work and would never work. He is grossly over rated and has proven in that very short time he is not captain material, at least not for our senior team. His recent performances should not have had him in the team and somebody tried to save him by making him captain. I think they got the shock of their lives when they immediately realized that they couldn’t do without Sammy. So back into the team he went after one game only to be under bowled when clearly he was the best bowler on show while Bravo and Roach went for plenty.
Somebody took a bold step in getting rid of some of the baggage by getting rid of Ramdin. Congratulations, you have more work to do since Pollard and Dwayne Bravo should not now be on the team because a team cannot afford to carry non-performers. Devon Smith while selecting himself by making a lot of runs at the regional level has proven yet again that he doesn’t belong at the highest level and should not be considered ever again.
Performance without the apparent use of brains is one thing, however, it is another thing when we have persons being paid large sums to do a particular job with the team but their performances make it seem as if some of these positions are vacant. These guys seem to have no guide, no sense of direction and, if you don’t know where you are going, you may take any road.
Fire the Head Coach; he is not effective. Do you remember him telling the media after one of Chris Gayle’s batting displays that he had asked ‘Chris’ to go out and enjoy himself because he observed that when they are playing in the IPL, they always appear to be happy? What Mr Gibson would have realized then was that he and Mr Ernest Hilaire had the guys treated like little children.
After the mediocre performances at the Champion’s Trophy and the Three Nations performances between West Indies, Sri Lanka and India, I think it was eyepass to have brought all those passengers to Guyana. The performance in Guyana was pathetic ‒ a nice word I think; but to have things continue as they are, tells of the scant respect the authorities are giving the cricketing public, which is full of people who are knowledgeable about cricket. People are disturbed and upset about the failures in West Indies cricket and the authorities don’t seem to care.
We spoke of preserving Mr Dependable Chanderpaul for Test cricket, but that is not being played at all and we will have to decide if we want a winning cricket team or a winning young team. If age is what really matters then forget about skill and ability, go into some chosen secondary school and just select some of the finest young men and send them out there to make runs for us. I would never put Shiv in a twenty overs game, but he is suited for any other form of cricket and his presence in the current team would not have allowed so many supporters to leave the stadium last Sunday with long faces.
Yours faithfully
Frank Peters
