Dear Editor,
Why Roger Harper and his merry band of selectors can never get it right when it comes to the selection of a West Indies team, when it is obvious to the rest of the Caribbean what the best team available is. Cricket fans keep wondering why is it that these men can never get it right or is it a case of other things playing behind the scene that we are not aware of. Whatever it is, it is not good for West Indies cricket.
How on earth can Roger Harper say that this is the best team they have selected, when it is obvious even to a blind man that Chris Gayle, Andre Fletcher, Oshane Thomas and Darren Bravo should never have been in the World Cup squad and their places should have gone to Sunil Narine, Sherfane Rutherford and Jason Holder in the fifteen man squad, and Romario Sheperd and Kennar Lewis joining Akeal Hossein and Sheldon Cottrell as the reserves. Editor, how long more will the West Indies Cricket Board and it’s selectors be afraid of Gayle and allow him to dictate to them how long more he must play. It is clear for all to see that the man days are over and at age forty-two he should have gone a long time ago. As for Andre Fletcher, this man seems to have a godfather within West Indies cricket. I have never seen a man keep failing over and over again and yet continues to be selected. The man is hopeless against spin bowling and yet he is in the World Cup squad. Oshane Thomas is quick, but is erratic and inconsistent. The top batsmen in the world will enjoy his bowling. As for Darren Bravo, the less said the better. The man has a very poor T20 record and in any case he is not a T20 player, yet he is in the reserves. You are left to wonder what was Roger Harper and his fellow selectors thinking when they selected him.
As mentioned above, if the fifteen man squad had Sunil Narine, Jason Holder and Sherfane Rutherford, along with Romario Shepperd and Kennar Lewis in the reserves (who by the way is a far better cover for Nicholas Pooran than Andre Fletcher) I can guarantee cricket fans, West Indies would have lifted the T20 World Cup for the third time. As it stands now, I don’t think they will win the World Cup. And by the way, if the West Indies do not win the World Cup, Roger Harper and his entire selection panel must be sacked.
Sincerely,
Imtiaz Baccus
