Dear Editor,
The Demerara Cricket Board wishes to urge the newly installed regional Windies selectors to revisit the situation regarding Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s continued omission from our Regional One Day team.
All international teams are now preparing their teams for the ICC World Cup to be hosted in New Zealand and Australia in February-March 2015. We have already squandered a great opportunity here at home to have him included and playing in the squad against the touring Bangladesh team. In all 3 ODI matches and in most of our previous encounters, we have been failing miserably in the top and middle order.
With the absence of Samuels and Sarwan for various reasons, our middle order looks very fragile. Fortunately, Ramdin has struck a rich vein of form in the last few months but there is very little support for his efforts from the other batters.
Against a lesser known attack at home, we were reduced to 34 for 5 until Ramdin and Pollard rescued us. Young Darren Bravo has come good in one of the matches but needs to step up and be more hungry and responsible for the abundance of natural talent that he undoubtedly possesses.
The opening slots have been a disaster with Gayle not firing in most of his outings and his various partners do not inspire confidence at the top. We need some more stability in the top order and Shiv still has a few more years of cricket left in him. We at the DCB have never agreed with the decision or judgement of Otis Gibson when he opined that for Shiv to be saved for Tests, he needed to be axed from ODIs. Most of the cricket knowledgeables that we have spoken to around the world have readily agreed that this was an unwise decision by Gibson and the previous WI selectors.
Let us correct this mistake that we made with Shiv and provide him with possibly his final opportunity to assist the WI team to bring home the bacon for us. Shiv’s fitness has never been an issue with the selectors and he is capable of being managed in a much better manner. The conditions in Australia and New Zealand are very harsh for most seasoned batters and we need all the experience that we have available to contribute to the success of our team. Shiv’s performance in the ODIs as an opener has been extraordinary and would be the perfect foil for Gayle at the top of the order.
We have 2 ODI series before the World Cup – in India and South Africa. Shiv is badly needed in our outfit for these series. Our last ODI outing in NZ was an embarrassment!
How many times, if ever, have we seen someone offer to play in a practice match for another territorial team just so that he would be in a match ready shape for a Test series? I cannot remember ever seeing something like this before and it clearly shows the attitude of Shiv to the game, and we must include him in all ODIs and Tests for the remainder of his career to help nurture and inculcate those habits in the other team members.
Yours faithfully,
Raj Singh
President DCB
