Chairman of the West Indies senior selection panel, Dr. Desmond Haynes has revealed that Alick Athanaze has been on the selection panel’s radar for a while and that Akeem Jordan swung his way into the side for the upcoming tour of South Africa.At a press conference yesterday following the announcement of the side, Haynes justified the selection of the two newcomers as well as the non-selection of Nkrumah Bonner.
According to Haynes, “I think that when you look at what’s been happening in the last couple of years, this young man has been on our radar for quite some time and I remember a discussion with Sarwan at the time when he was my co-selector and [Ramnaresh] Sarwan had the opportunity to observe the games and we really liked the way this young man has adapted himself to the bigger game, the longer format, we think he has a lot of ability…so he has done very well for the Windward Islands… he is a guy that is in form, he just got a 100 and we believe that we should give him an opportunity to see what he can do at the highest level.”
Athanaze has scored 244 runs in four innings this season with a high score of 141 for Windward Islands Volcanoes, a side he captains in the Regional Four-Day tournament. Meanwhile, on the selection of Barbados Pride’s seamer, Akeem Jordan, Haynes reasoned, “We looked at the way Jordan can bowl, not only in the four-day competition but also in the 50-over competition last year and even with the white ball that doesn’t swing a lot he really impressed us with the movement of the new ball and we thought we don’t have the luxury of someone with the excess pace so we will go with someone who we think will be able to threaten the edge. I think Jordan with the form at the moment, we believe he will do the job for us.”
Haynes said that a lot of the local seamers are out injured and Jordan sits at the top of the bowling table with 12 wickets under his belt in two matches. Haynes explained that Bonner’s exclusion came on the heels of the panel’s view that he needs to play some more first-class matches in the Caribbean in preparation for India’s tour in June coupled with his poor run in the last few Tests.
“It is not a situation where when someone is left out the side you are done with that person… we had a conversation and explained to Bonner why he is not going to South Africa,” Haynes said.
