Another West Indies captaincy conundrum
Fri, Jun 8, '07
by RYAN PATRICK The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has rejected the nomination of Chris Gayle as stand-in captain for the ODI side in England but now there's an even bigger conundrum: The board's choice -- Daren Ganga -- is not even in the squad picked by the selection panel.
According to reliable information reaching CaribbeanCricket.com, the WICB and the selection panel are at loggerheads over the process for picking the team, leading to the embarrassment of nominations, rejections and public staredowns.
The WICB invited the selection panel -- chairman Gordon Greenidge, Andy Roberts and Clyde Butts -- to Antigua last Saturday to pick the squad and, after deliberations, the trio submitted the full team and its nominations for the captain and vice captain.
According to a source, the board's Executive Committee (the presidents of the regional associations) rejected both nominations -- Chris Gayle as captain and Denesh Ramdin as vice-captain -- and summoned Greenidge to notify him of its choice of Ganga.
The board also rejected the Ramdin-for-vice-captain nomination and chose Shiv Chanderpaul to be Ganga's deputy.
Only one problem, the selection panel had already submitted its squad without Ganga's name.
When I contacted Tony Deyal to ask about the delay in announcing the squad, he said the process required a nomination of captain, then the inclusion of the captain in the team selection deliberations, suggesting that the board's pick (Ganga) should have helped to pick the team.
However, this interpretation is different from the selection panel's take on how the process works. In the mind of Greenidge, there already is a captain (Ramnaresh Sarwan) who was approved for the entire tour of the UK, and the ODI captain would only be a "stand-in replacement."
According to a source, Sarwan's captaincy was nominated/confirmed for the entire UK tour and is scheduled to be reviewed in August 2007. The WICB's statement when Sarwan was chosen reads:
"Following a presentation by the Convenor of Selectors, Gordon Greenidge, the Board, after lengthy discussion, unanimously accepted the nomination of Ramnaresh Sarwan as Captain for the UK Tour."
The selectors have made it clear they have no problem with the board's rejection of the Gayle nomination but they're standing firm on principle that the WICB should not get involved in the business of picking the team.
"Ganga is not in the ODI team. If the board picks him as captain, then they are essentially picking the team," a well-placed source with knowledge of the situation explained.
The selectors are also unhappy that the Ramdin nomination was rejected in favour of Chanderpaul because they believe it robs them of a chance to put the younger Ramdin in a leadership position with the vice-captaincy.
In the minds of the selection panel, Chris Gayle is the only logical choice for captain in the ODI squad which does not include Ganga.
The selectors also ran into a problem with one of its nominations for the 'A' team scheduled to tour Zimbabwe. The panel nominated Ryan Hinds to serve as deputy to Sylvester Joseph but this was rejected in favour of Narsingh Deonarine.
A source made it clear that the WICB rejections are only being done by the executive committee and not by the full board of directors, arguing that this is in violation of the WICB's internal rules.