Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) Chairman of Selectors, Ravindranauth Seeram and Territorial Development Officer (TDO), Colin Stuart were at odds with each other over whose responsibility it was to inform the captain of his selection in the Guyana Harpy Eagles 13-man squad for the upcoming Regional First Class tournament.
After the team was named Friday last, Leon Johnson was named captain but the highly successful leader revealed on Tuesday while appearing as a guest on the Mason and Guest show that he learnt of the team’s selection via Facebook.
Johnson indicated that he had no input or was asked anything relating to the team, a first in his over 15-year career which saw him winning five Regional First-Class championships consecutively for Guyana.
At a press conference yesterday, Seeram looked to pin the blame on Stuart saying, “I think Colin made a mistake when he didn’t tell Johnson he is the captain or probably relayed the team to Johnson. I think it is an oversight on Colin’s part.”
Stuart, however, would not sit and take the blame but rather rebutted Seeram’s claim.
“I just want to correct you there, I have never had the responsibility of informing the captain that he was selected and if we refer to one of your earlier comments, you would have said that the captain is normally selected prior so if you had the team, he then becomes part of the selection or you could then ask for the captain’s opinion. So I cannot recall that that has ever been a policy of the board that the TDO informs the person that get the captain.”
Seeram said that if the captain is not selected before the team then it becomes difficult to consult with him on team selection.
“If the cricket board does not select the captain before the selecting of a team then we cannot ask him to join us because we don’t know who will be the captain,” he reasoned.
According to the Chairman of Selectors, “When we selected the team, the team goes to the President (of the Guyana Cricket Board) and the TDO, when the president gets the team, he would give his input into the team, then it would pass down to Colin who then gives it to you guys, the journalists and the team,” he informed.
The Guyana Harpy Eagles team will head over to Antigua on Sunday for the opening round against Barbados Pride on February 1 before going to Grenada to face Windward Islands Volcanoes from February 8.
