Team Selection and The Indian Series

Now that the West Indies domestic competition has entered its last round, it is perhaps the correct time to start looking ahead to our chances in the upcoming campaigns against India and New Zealand. Because not an inconsiderable part of our continued decline has to do with team-selection, there has understandably been much speculation on what will be the make-up of the team.

In any team sport, the combination of the team is of paramount importance. There is a reason that the West Indies continued to lose despite the presence of Walsh and Ambrose in the past, and now Lara and Hooper. It is not simply that the backup caste did not perform, but they did not perform as a unit.

Note, although Lara, and to a lesser extent Chanderpaul, performed when Ambrose and Walsh were around, and Sarwan performed along with Lara in Sri Lanka, we still lost badly. First the makeup of a team must take into consideration the conditions and the strategy.

If the conditions favor spin bowling but the opposition has a known weakness against pace, then will we go with a pace attack, a spin attack, or a balanced attack? What are the resources at your disposal? Are your wicket-taking bowlers spinners or fast bowlers? It does not matter how well a wicket takes spin or pace, if you don't have quality bowlers, the conditions cannot be adequately exploited.

What about your batsmen? Is your strategy occupation of the crease or is it about using attack as a means of softening the opposition? If you go for balance, will it be with an attacking or defensive bias? Do you use two shotguns -- one at the top and one in the middle?with the others batting around them? What happens when you don't have batsman with a combination of class and form? Do you pick players based on class or form? If your opponent has very good spinners and nippy seamers, do you pick laden footed batters even if they are in form, or those who can play spin but are not in top form?

These are only some of the questions that the selectors must ponder when they sit down to work out the combination for the Indian series. My humble view is that they have already started off wrongly. Any selection panel that cannot find places in squad of 22 for Reon King and Colin Stuart must be out of their minds.

Reon King is lacking form, not class: his class is undeniable. He has pace and he has proven that he is a wicket taker at the highest level. Colin Stuart is fast and furious and India has a weakness against that kind of bowling. Do we not want to exploit their weaknesses? Look at what the Australians do with Brett Lee. He goes for many and does not take many five-wicket hauls, but he shocks with sheer pace and softens the batsmen for the others to take the wickets.

Who do these two replace? Well Marlon Black and Pedro Collins have no business in the team ahead of Stuart and King. As a southpaw, Collins has been expected to provide variety, but at his pace with no reverse swing he is less than ordinary.

The other mistakes are the omission of Neil McGarrell and Ricardo Powell.

Powell's technical faults are less that those of Chris Gayle and Wavell Hinds, yet he is constantly overlooked. Is his shot selection any worse than Gayle, Wavell Hinds and Ganga? Come on, let's get real. One of our problems is that we no longer intimidate opponents; intimidation is often a useful substitute for high-class talent. In fact, I make bold to argue that a considerable part of Viv Richards' talent was his ability to intimidate opponents with the sheer explosiveness of his batting. This is what Powell has that only Gayle and the incomparable Lara in the present team have.

The West Indies are no longer the charismatic team it used to be; that large pool of high-class talent is not currently available to use. In such circumstances you need honest common sense journeymen to play around the few charismatic players. Here is where McGarrell has no equal, except perhaps for Breese, Laurie Williams and Ian Bradshaw. Here is a bowler, clever in flight and spin, who can tie up an end if the need arises or exploit a batsman's weakness through sheer perseverance, or skittle out a side in a turning wicket. Here is a player who bats for his life down the order, is an above ordinary fielder, and who is a student of the game. Are the selectors really serious?

As we look to the first test, we would have surrendered the initiative if we start with the wrong combination. As I see it, Stuart Williams has to be an automatic choice. Anyone who scores almost 1,000 runs in a short season is no fluke. Devon Smith is also in for he has shown that he can score, but most importantly, he can occupy the crease.

So here is my team for Bourda, barring injuries:

Stuart Williams

Devon Smith

Ramnaresh Sarwan

Brian Lara

Carl Hooper

Shivnarine Chanderpaul

Ridley Jacobs

Neil McGarrell

Merv Dillon

Darren Powell

Reon King

Powell gets in just ahead of Sanson, Stuart, and Tino Best. Sorry Chris Gayle, but we can't have two laden footed openers. If Lara is not fit, then Gayle, Morton, and Ricardo Powell must compete for that spot. There must be an attacking batsman to intimidate in the middle. Junior Murray sits out only because Jacobs has done nothing wrong. For my money, Murray is both a better keeper and batter.

* Dr David Hinds runs the popular GuyanaCaribbeanPolitics.com Web site. He is a university lecturer, political commentator and activist. Dr Hinds teaches political science at Glendale College and Mt San Antonio College in California.