Teenager Jayden Seales’ surprise inclusion in the West Indies touring party for the two-Test series in New Zealand was a move aimed at “fast-tracking” the inexperienced fast bowler’s development, convenor of selectors Roger Harper has said.

The 19-year-old Seales was last week named as one of six reserves who will accompany the 15-man Test squad despite not having played a single first-class match or domestic Super50 game.

And even though the more experienced 23-year-old speedster Keon Harding was overlooked by selectors despite traveling with the Test squad on the England tour last July, Harper argued it was not a case of Seales being pushed ahead of other players.

“Remember when we went to England we took 10 reserves,” Harper explained.

“Here we have just six reserves and the opportunity here was to include Jayden Seales in an effort to give him some exposure and sort of fast-track his development, let him have an opportunity to experience what the environment is like at the highest level with a view to fast-tracking his development.

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Wat message is Harper sending to Harding; dat a player who has played all of 6 T20 games and taken 8 wickets is a better prospect dan him who has done well in List A cricket and in particular de last Super 50 as well as in de 4 day Tournaments?

Or is he saying dat WI need net bowlers and u had ur chance already so we going wid someone else

In reply to Maispwi
Harper just double talking. Yes Seales is being pushed ahead of Harding. If the selectors believe he is the better prospect, then I have no problem with that. Harper just needs some balls to defend the selection instead of trying to muddy the water.

In reply to CaribbeanCricket.com

Harper is making absolutely no sense! How do you leave out a 23 year old that took 33 wickets in our domestic tournament and replace him with a 19 year old with no first class experience? I am happy for Seals but if they wanted to fast track his development then they should have brought him instead of Cornwall, Paul or Reider, I guarantee you will not play a test.

I think the selectors wanted fewer Bajans on the team, though they are the island producing the best players at the moment, so they left out Harding and Hope. So now 7 Bajans, 3 Jamaicans, 3 Trinis, 2 Guyanese and 2 Leewards. Yes, that team looks more like the West Indies but definitely not our best team. Both Hope and Harding should have been in and Cornwall, Paul, Campbell and Raymond Reifer should be out of the test team. Talking about speeding up the development of young talent, if so I believe the young leg spinner in the u19 world cup would be a better selection than Cornwall

harding and chemar holder were the two best young fast bowlers in the last fc championship by a mile he should be in the original squad really ,but you can not even make room for him in the reserves but kept reifer ,mcsween presumeably because they are left handed pacers and seales should be in the a side that is what it is for

In reply to velo
All fans should be talking about the non selection of Permaul.
You take 50 wickets in a regional tournament and is ignored by the selectors.

Stands to reason that the selectors and coaches saw lots of Harding on that England tour. Yeah he didn’t play any tests, but he did play in the 2nd of 2 intra squad matches where he didn’t exactly light the world on fire:

11-0-69-1 in the first innings and 3-0-9-0 in the 2’nd

Curious that he didn’t play the first intra squad match. Maybe he was injured. Everyone else played though.

Perhaps he had his chance on what was a long tour and didn’t impress enough to be selected for this one.

Harper could have said that, but may have had a private chat with the player and trotted out the usual lines at the press conference.

In reply to openning

That’s been spoken about lots on this board, especially when the squad to England with reserves was announced. Maybe you haven’t been paying attention.

Fans have come to accept that performance in Regional FC cricket for certain players doesn’t matter.

It also tells you that the CWI policy on performance in regional FC cricket to be eligible for the test team is a farce. Regional FC cricket is not a barometer for performance in international cricket. CWI knows it. The selectors know it. The players know it. The media knows it. The fans know it.

In reply to Baje

Agreed....

In reply to Sylobaby

Mia is a man

In reply to Sylobaby

Yuh bajan slip showing.. some of yall just can't hide your stupidity.

Based on what you selecting Harding over Paul?

Keemo Paul got the best stats for a pacer in the region at the FC level.. 87 wickets @ 18. What's Harding claim to fame? De man went to England and couldn't even buy a wicket in the practice matches.

Hope averaging less than 20 in the last 3 year and you still think he should be in the squad? Man people like yall are the reason why WI cricket is shyte

In reply to anthonyp

@ Anthonyp I am not Bajan. I am a west indian who wants the best for West Indies. In fact I am from the windward island and I should also add that Mcsween should not be selected ahead of Harding. I wouldn't pick Paul because he will most likely not play because we have a set four crown pace attack and should anyone gets injured I think Holder will be the fifth seemer. So since Harper said the reason for going with Seales is to fast track his development, I believe Harding should also be part of the development. Concerning Hope, I believe he is one of the best in the region, that can also keep wicket, so I would prefer to have him onboard. A middle order comprised of Bravo, Hope, Hetty, Brooks, Campbell and Blackwood gives us more depth and, in the event Dowrich is injured or struggling against the strong pace attack of New Zealand, they could easily play Hope as wicket keeper batsman. Yes Hope has been struggling of late but he is still very young and it is hard to shatter the confidence of arguably your best young batsman.In recent times our selectors wrecked the confidence of Bravo, Hetmyer and Blackwood and so far I cannot say it helped them or helped West Indies and I don't believe it will help Hope either. It's time we put our island politics aside and play our best players

@ Anthonyp,my problem with our selectors is they don't follow statistics and they are not good at analyzing talents. Going back to Hope, his statistics would show us that he is a better batsman batting at # 4 or #5 than batting at number one or three. Batting at #4, his average is. 32.71 and #5 is 50.00 whereas batting as an opener his average is 14 and batting at #3, his ave is 17. So instead of dropping him what about batting him at #4 or #5? You said his last 3yrs his average is under 20. But could it not because he batted at number 3 since, since after they replaced Bravo with him? Now we have Bravo and Hetty back I think it would be a good time to have him bat at #4 after Bravo or 5, after Hetmy. This young man is too gifted to be dropped period. Do you also remember when the great Brian Lara struggled in several test matches before his record breaking in inning with scores of 23, 0, 0, 8, 36 and 33 in the Caribbean? Come on Hope is our hope for tomorrow and let's not destroy him today

In reply to imusic

That was the problem when CB was chairman of the selectors, it should not be the problem with Harper and his panel.
It was said CB packed the squad with Bajans, they is still about seven on the test squad to NZ.

In reply to openning

He didn’t?

In reply to imusic
Not to me, as I look at the teams selected after his departure.

In reply to openning

You Bajan. If the team have 11 Baje in it you would demand to know why de subs not baje too

In reply to imusic