The decision by the Cricket West Indies selection committee to overlook left arm spinner Veerasammy Permaul from the 25 players travelling to England tomorrow for a three test series continues to ball all and sundry.
The Guyana Cricket Board (GCB), Berbice Cricket Board (BCB) and Albion Community Centre Cricket Club have all made their concerns known and are asking for answers.
The 30-year-old left-arm spinner finished the truncated West Indies Championship as the leading wicket-taker with 50 wickets from eight matches. He also bettered his previous best with a match haul of 15 for 77 while reaching 536 wickets in 121 First-Class matches.
Seems those performances simply were not good enough for the selectors.
Since the team was announced, the GCB recently expressed its “bewilderment” over Permaul’s exclusion.
“Permaul’s outstanding performances over the years have spoken for itself, and the GCB perceive performances as the strongest criteria for selection. In so doing, the GCB acknowledges that Permaul’s performances year-after-year has not only been exceptional, but unquestionable; and as such we are of the opinion that he should have been selected in the WIndies squad,” a statement from the territorial board said.
“The GCB finds Permaul’s omission from a Windies squad of 25 very disturbing and as a result, the President of the GCB has since written to Johnny Graves, Chief Executive Officer of Cricket West Indies requesting a logical explanation,” it added.
Not to be outdone, the BCB has questioned the importance of consistency and performance while describing the situation as both “puzzling” and “sickening.”
“Does performance matter anymore in West Indies cricket or are our players been judged by other factors that we are unaware of? What message is the West Indies Selectors sending to our players when they turn a blind eye to performances of the highest standard and rewarding those at rock bottom?” the BCB asked while adding, “It gets more puzzling when he cannot even make the squad of 11 reserves despite been the leading bowler in the 2020 Regional four-day tournament with 50 wickets, including three five wickets hauls in an innings and two 10 wickets haul in a match.”
“Some of the players who have made the team have not even come close to Permaul’s performance and yet continue to be ahead of him in the eyes of the selectors,” the BCB argued.
The county board condemned the actions of the selectors and demanded answers to his omission as well as the selection policy.
“Permaul deserves to be on a senior regional team and this profound nonsense needs to stop with immediate effect. Shame on the persons responsible for his non selection and surely you must have some guilt in your conscience,” the BCB stated.
Permaul’s local club, Albion described his exclusion as “mindboggling.”
“Permaul’s omission is mindboggling, having taking into consideration the young man’s dominance with the ball in both the Regional First Class and Limited Overs’ tournaments over the years, with the abbreviated just concluded 2019/2020 First Class season being no exception where he bagged fifty (50) wickets,” the club pointed out.
“Selection must be based purely on merit and undoubtedly Permaul merits his selection based on his performance. What wrong has he done? His performance speaks for itself year-after-year, season-after-season but yet still he continues to be ignored by the selectors…
“We at the Albion Community Centre Cricket Club therefore demand an explanation from the Cricket West Indies’ selectors for Permaul’s non-selection as we are eager to know what more he must do to be selected.”
