President of the Port Mourant Cricket Club (PMCC) Vickram Seubarran, said he is baffled about why PMCC players Vivekanand Jagjit and Daniel Samaroo were overlooked to represent Berbice in the ongoing Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) Under-17 Inter-County competition.
The duo have performed well in the Berbice Cricket Board (BCB)/Memorex U17 inter-club competition but were not selected to the county team. “What is the purpose of the BCB hosting the Memorex Under-17 tournament from which they select the players who performed creditably to compete in the inter-zone tournament and they are not being selected,” he asked.
“All match reports were submitted to the BCB in a timely manner, from which they could have seen that both Jagjit and Samaroo had consistent performances for Port Mourant, thus guaranteeing them places in the final 11 for the inter-zone matches,” he argued.
“To my mind, this whole selection process that is being used to select the Under-17 team is a fraud, because while some may say playing in the inter-zone is the criteria for selection, the BCB selectors picked the team from one match and there are some players who did not perform creditably in that match, but were selected.
“Jagjit played all the matches for us and performed well with the ball and bat, in fact, in four matches, he has taken 32 wickets including five, five-wicket hauls and two, 10-wicket hauls with his best bowling per innings being 6 for 20 in the match where he took 11 for 46.
“When you look at his returns with the bat for the same period, he has scored a total of 103 runs with a top score of 44 against Whim, in the same match for which he took a combined total of 3 for 33, with a best haul of 2 for 10,” he said. He further queried whether overall performances would not guarantee him a place in the 14-man squad for the Inter-County tournament even though he has not played in the Inter-zone. “Something is wrong with the procedure of selection [then]” he asserted.
As such, the PMCC head is calling on the BCB’s parent body in the GCB to intervene in the matter, since several players, not only from PMCC, have been overlooked by the BCB’s Selection panel.
