BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Speedster Fidel Edwards is anxious to make a comeback to the West Indies team but says that path is being frustrated by Barbados selectors.
The 32-year-old has not worn regional colours in 16 months and has been overlooked for the ongoing Regional Four-Day Championship, and is worried his career maybe in danger.
“I want to play for Barbados. That is the only way I would get to play for the West Indies. I got dropped from the West Indies side for apparently no reason,” he told Barbados Today online newspaper.
“The last game I played for Barbados I took five wickets. The last time I played for the West Indies I took six, but still no play. This is two years I haven’t played for Barbados and going on two that I haven’t played for the West Indies.
“Right now I am so frustrated I am actually thinking about retiring from four-day cricket because if I don’t play for Barbados this year in four-day cricket and the West Indies [selectors] don’t see me I won’t get a play and I am not getting any younger. I feel like I am getting push out again.”
Edwards has played 55 Tests and taken 165 wickets, but has been in and out of the West Indies team in recent years because of injury.
He was briefly in action last September for West Indies A when he was called up to replace the injured left-arm seamer Sheldon Cottrell on the tour of India last year, but sent down just four overs in the single game he played.
Edwards, who was part of the winning Barbados team in this year’s NAGICO Super50, said he had received mixed signals from selectors.
“The selectors got this thing about who they want to play and they telling me all kinds of things. But this is the fourth round (of the Four-Day tournament) and we playing six rounds of cricket. If we playing six rounds of cricket and you say that they rotating the fast bowlers but yet still everybody get a play and still I am not playing,” Edwards lamented.
“Jason (Holder) came in, Miguel (Cummins) was out, Tino (Best) is back out, Miguel is back in, and I am still out. So I really don’t know what is going on.”
He said selectors apparently had concerns about his fitness but pointed out that he had been playing for Trinidad club side Queen’s Park, in order to stay in shape.