The Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) became the latest body to pin point the selection choices of Cricket West Indies (CWI).
In a statement by the GCB earlier this week, it stated “The Guyana Cricket Board wishes to express its profound disappointment with the totally illogical selection decisions of the current Cricket West Indies Selection Committee.”
This comes on the heels of the decision by CWI to put Shimron Hetmyer and Keemo Paul, both Guyanese on the bench while persisting with consistent failures.
Hetmyer scored a century in the warm up match against Bangladesh while Paul was a vital part of the West Indies A team competing in England but both of them were restricted to running water while Devon Smith, who scored 91 runs in six innings and Miguel Cummins, who bagged three wickets in six outings given the nod ahead of the two in the first test against Bangladesh.
“In the past month or so, CWI hosted Sri Lanka in a 3 Test series that unfortunately ended in a 1-1 draw at home. For the very first time in a long time, our team won the First test of a series most convincingly. We strongly feel that had the correct team been selected to represent us in the Third Test of that series, we would have won that series easily by a 2 to nil margin. Paul was named as a replacement for Hetmyer and plucked out from a touring team in England to return here in the Caribbean to sit on the bench. The GCB held its collective breadth and refrained from making a statement in this regard with the hope that these mistakes would have been corrected at the commencement of this Bangladesh series.” GCB stated. The dominance of the local franchise, Guyana Jaguars, the GCB described as a “carefully designed development programme” and has produced the goods but the players have not been given the necessary rewards for their efforts.
“It is a well-known fact that the Guyana Jaguars has completely dominated the Regional 4-day Professional Cricket League for the past 4 consecutive years. This dominance did not occur by luck or chance but rather by a carefully designed development program by our Guyana franchise. Our Franchise has invested heavily in our youths and has created an Academy program whereby the Academy players practice daily with our contracted Franchise players. As a result of these successes, one would have thought that most of our players should have been featuring heavily in all of the CWI representative red ball teams. That is yet to happen.” The GCB statement said
The GCB believes that the bench strength of the team should be tested.
“We strongly feel that with these short two and three matches test series now, our bench strength has to be tested regularly so that our supposedly ‘entrenched’ players are placed on notice that their places are not guaranteed throughout the series. Our teams and its players will not develop if players continue to fail and are selected and players who perform well are not selected in the final XI. Our policy is this regard has to be clearly outlined and defined.” The GCB expressed.
It is not limited to the two young men but also other members of the Jaguars’ franchise.
“It is noteworthy that four CWI teams have been selected in the last month or so and some of our top performers in the PCL over the years could not find favor with the selectors.”
Recently, Stabroek News reported left arm spinner, Veerasammy Permaul expressing his frustration in the selection policy of CWI despite being the leading wicket taker, unable to make the team.
Similarly, successful skipper Leon Johnson continues to be overlooked.
