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.”