Dear Editor,
I will like to submit that if the West Indies Cricket Board does not dissolve the Courtney Browne-led selection panel and appoint a new panel with our own Travis Dowlin as the chairman and people like Jeff Dujon, Ian Bishop and Darren Ganga as selectors, the West Indies team will be humiliated at the 2019 World Cup in England.
Courtney Browne is destroying West Indies cricket and something has to be done urgently to stop the rot. If Courtney Browne has his way the entire West Indies team will be Barbadians and that is why the fortunes of the team will not improve so long as Courtney Browne is chairman of the selection panel. If we cannot beat lowly Bangladesh in a 50-over one-day series, how on earth we hope to beat teams like India, England, New Zealand and Pakistan in the world cup? These teams consistently score over 300 runs in their 50 overs and in the case of India and England 340 and 350 are par score for them and the reason is because most of their batsmen’s strike rate is in the vicinity of between 130 and 150 and when they are set they go on to make big hundreds.
In the case of the West Indies most times we struggle to post scores of between 250 and 300 and the reason is because we select batsmen whose strike rate is between 60 and 80 and do not know how to make a hundred. How on earth people like Jason Mohamed, Shai Hope and Keiran Powell are in our one day team is mind-boggling when these guys’ strike rates and averages are atrocious to say the least.
Editor, talking to most cricketing pundits in this country, if we do hope to have one iota of a chance of winning the 2019 world cup, the West Indies team should read 1) Gayle 2) Evin Lewis 3) Darren Bravo 4) Samuels 5) Hetmyer 6) Dwayne Bravo 7) Ramdin 8) Russell 9) Rovman Powell 10) Jason Holder 11) Keemo Paul 12) Narine 13) Bishoo 14) Nurse 15) Alzarri Joseph 16) Roach. The reason for Roach is because of his accuracy and his ability to swing the ball especially in English conditions.
Editor, I do hope this letter attracts the attention of Dave Cameron and his fellow directors and they do what is necessary to save West Indies cricket and give us a chance to win the world cup.
Yours faithfully,
Imtiaz Baccus
