Holding Takes Issue with Campbell Selection

Former West Indies fastbowler, Michael Holding, has questioned the logic behind the selection of 31 year-old Sherwin Campbell ahead of 25 year-old Leon Garrick for the upcoming two-Test and one-day series against Pakistan in Sharjah.

Holding said while he could "understand" the desire for an "experienced" player to replace the injured Brian Lara and Ramnaresh Sarwan, it seemed illogical to take Campbell since he was unlikely to play ahead of openers, Chris Gayle and Daren Ganga.

The former speedster noted that Barbadian, Campbell, who has an average of 32.82 from 2856 runs in 51 Tests, was a last-minute call-up to replace Sarwan in last week's West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) trial camp in Trinidad and Tobago.

As such, it seemed reasonable to assume that the other batsmen in the squad would be ahead of him, Holding argued.

Fifteen players, led by captain, Carl Hooper, were selected from the 22-man camp for the short campaign against Pakistan.

"I don't quite understand the rationale in taking Campbell ahead of Garrick, especially in a situation where Campbell won't be the first choice opener in Sharjah," Holding said.

"It seems that for the time being at least the plan is to stick with Chris Gayle and Darren Ganga as the openers and I can't see Campbell being asked to bat in the middle order, so why would you take him just to sit and watch?" asked Holding.

In such circumstances, he argued, the selectors would have been better off sticking with the younger Garrick who went on tours of Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Kenya last year and got very few chances to prove himself.

In Sri Lanka -- where he failed to play a single game -- Garrick was diagnosed as having a heart condition, which resulted in him being flown home early.

But after exhaustive tests in Kingston, Garrick was cleared of ill-health by Jamaican doctors. He participated in Jamaica's pre-Busta Cup practice games in mid-December to early January and was also part of the West Indies camp in Trinidad and Tobago.

Holding said the fact that Garrick was still playing cricket and was invited by the WICB to the Trinidad and Tobago camp, meant that the cricket authorities had accepted the position taken by the local medical team that there was nothing wrong with the little right-hander.

* SOURCE: Jamaica Observer.