BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – New chief selector Desmond Haynes says fairness and professionalism will be hallmark of his tenure, as he looks to “broaden the pool” especially in the white-ball format.
In his first media conference here yesterday after being announced to replace Roger Harper earlier this month, the West Indies batting legend said one of the major objectives of the new panel was to transition those excelling in the longer format into the one-day setup, in order to bolster the Caribbean side’s fortunes.
“We’re not like India where we’re picking from 1.2 billion people,” said Haynes, awarded Barbados’ highest national honour, The Order of Freedom, during Republic Day celebrations last November.
“We have a very small pool and we feel it’s important that if someone is doing well in Test cricket, it’s important that we recognise that and give him the opportunity to play 50-over cricket for West Indies, because that could broaden the pool and then we would be selecting from more people.
“We don’t believe that there should be any white-ball cricketer nor any red-ball cricketer – we’re interested in picking cricketers who can play a role that we want them to play in any format of the game.
“And our aim is to make sure that we act in fairness and in a professional manner, and that is it.
“We’re hoping that the public can realise that we feel like we need to expand the pool by giving people that are doing well in Test cricket the opportunity to play the shorter version.”
West Indies have endured a protracted run of poor form in the one-day version, winning only 12 of their last 27 matches and just three of their last nine series inside the last two years.
They suffered a shock series defeat to minnows Ireland earlier this month in Jamaica and currently lie eighth in the International Cricket Council rankings, only above Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.
Of the last side which featured against England, only five members have featured in Tests, and Haynes moved to rectify this by calling up the trio of Kemar Roach, Darren Bravo and Nkrumah Bonner for next month’s tour of India.
“We’re not changing the policy. We believe the policy of [Cricket West Indies] is to try and select the best team possible and it doesn’t matter where the person comes from, and that is our aim that we want to make sure we get the best team out there in order for West Indies to get some success,” Haynes said of his new approach.
“If you look at West Indies in the last couple of years, there were hardly people coming in from the Test team playing in the 50-over [format].
“The majority of players that were playing in the 50-over [format] were people who were playing in T20 as well and our record at the moment – we’ve struggled.
“We struggled in the last series [against Ireland] so we believe if we get someone who is doing well in Test cricket that they would be able to enhance our 50-over team. And you have to take into consideration as well that we’re preparing for the 2023 World Cup in India.”
And while the likes of attacking left-handers Evin Lewis and Shimron Hetmyer have remained outside the ODI setup for the last seven months, Haynes assured they had not been discarded.
“I think what we need to do is put our arm around these guys and let them know we’re interested in their development, and to also [let them] understand that there’s a level of fitness that is required to play at international level,” Haynes explained.
“Hetmyer is in our plans so there’s no question about it … but obviously we have a squad of people here who are doing well here in the T20 tournament [against England] so we decided we’d keep them for the tournament going on to India.”
West Indies head to India shortly for a three-match ODI series from February 6-11 in Ahmedabad. A T20 International series will follow immediately afterwards, with selectors opting for the same 15-man squad currently featuring in the five-match series against England here.
Haynes and former West Indies captain and strokemaker, Ramnaresh Sarwan, form the new men’s selection panel, along with head coach Phil Simmons.