Cricket Committee Recommendation Rejected

Sat, Nov 29, '03

by RYAN NARAINE

The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has taken yet another recommendation from its cricket committee and tossed it in the wastepaper basket.

The latest rejection centers around a suggestion to give the junior selection panel 'first pick' of Under-23 players for the upcoming Carib Beer regional tournament. Instead, the WICB directors threw out the recommendation and reverted to the old policy of territories 'protecting' certain young players.

According to information reaching CaribbeanCricket.com, the cricket committee agreed that it was a counter-productive policy for territories to select Under-23 players and then leave them out of their final XI for Carib Cup games.

"These youngsters need to be playing cricket. It makes no sense to have the youths picked for their countries and then left out of the final eleven for the entire season. What's the use in that?" said one member of the WICB cricket committee.

The committee -- which includes Mike Findlay (chairman), Sir Viv Richards, Jackie Hendricks, Sir Everton Weekes, Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Bryan Davis, Clyde Butts and Ann Browne-John -- wanted the 'B' team for this year's Carib Beer competition to be picked before the regional squads.

"The plan was for the junior selection panel to work with the senior selectors to pick the 'B' team first. That way, we get a competitive squad with players that the (senior) selectors could get a good look at...But it (the suggestion) ran into problems at the board," the committee member lamented.

According to another source, the WICB directors weren't happy with a policy that would rob the regional teams of some of their best players. For instance, senior West Indies players Ramnaresh Sarwan, Marlon Samuels, Chris Gayle, Jerome Taylor, Fidel Edwards, Ravi Rampaul, Omari Banks and Carlton Baugh would possibly be available for the 'B' team under the cricket committee's recommendation.

For this year's tournament, that was not much of an issue since the West Indies players would be away on tour until the last two rounds of the Carib Beer Cup competition.

Another source said the cricket committee's recommendation was viewed as an attempt by the selectors to give Sarwan some captaincy experience. "The Guyana situation with (Shiv) Chanderpaul as captain means that Sarwan will never get captaincy experience with his home team. If he's the West Indies vice captain and he's in training for the future captaincy, he needs to get some on-field experience," he added.

For this year's Carib Beer Cup tournament, the 'B' team will be made up only of Under-23 players not named in a territorial squad.

"The 'B' team conflict is symptomatic of why we are so slow to move up the ladder of international competitiveness. We need a 'farming' system which has our best young players 19 to 25 being actively prepared to move up to international level," said one WICB source. "We have been throwing too many players in to the deep end at this level without a reasonable amount of preparation. Our management team then have to spend more time nursing and teaching than analysing and planning strategy and tactics," he added.

The cricket committee has been complaining for several years that its recommendations have never received approval/backing from the board of directors. Former WICB president Wes Hall was a member of the committee and even he could not get recommendations past the board.

Separately, the WICB released the following fixtures for the 2004 Carib Beer Series:

Round 1 (January 9th to 12th):

Barbados v Guyana @ Kensington Oval, Barbados
Windward Islands v Jamaica @ Beausejour, St. Lucia
Trinidad & Tobago v Leeward Islands @ Guaracara Park, Trinidad
West Indies "B" v Kenya @ Edgar Gilbert Park, St. Kitts

Round 2 (January 16th to 19th):

Jamaica v Guyana @ Sabina Park, Jamaica
Barbados v Windward Islands @ Northstar, Barbados
Trinidad & Tobago v West Indies "B" @ Frank Worrell Centre,Trinidad
Leeward Islands v Kenya @ Webster Park, Anguilla

Round 3 (January 23rd to 26th):

Jamaica v Barbados @ Sabina Park, Jamaica
Windward Islands v Guyana @ Botanical Gardens, Dominica
Leeward Islands v West Indies "B" @ Grove Park, Nevis
Trinidad & Tobago v Kenya @ Tobago

Round 4 (January 30th to February 2nd):

Jamaica v Kenya @ National Stadium, Grenada
Barbados v West Indies "B" @ Cave Hill Campus, Barbados
Trinidad & Tobago v Windwards @ Queen's Park Oval, Trinidad
Guyana versus Leeward Islands @ Essequibo, Guyana

Round 5 (February 6th to February 9th):

Leewards v Windwards @ Carib Grounds, St. Maarten
West Indies "B" v Jamaica @ Stanford Cricket Grounds, Antigua
Guyana v Trinidad @ Berbice, Guyana
Barbados v Kenya @ Windward Grounds, Barbados

Round 6 (February 12th to 15th):

Leeward Islands v Barbados @ St. Thomas, USVI
Jamaica v Trinidad & Tobago @ Alpart, Jamaica
Guyana v West Indies "B" @ Enmore, Guyana
Windwards v Kenya @ Arnos Vale, St. Vincent

Round 7 February (19th to 22nd):

Trinidad & Tobago v Barbados (Feb 18-21) @ Guaracara Park, Trinidad
Guyana v Kenya @ Bourda, Guyana
Jamaica v Leeward Islands @ Alpart, Jamaica
Windwards v West Indies "B" @ National Stadium, Grenada<//>

Semi Finals (February 26th to 29th): Venue TBA

FINALS: TBA