Windies Selectors Sending Mixed Messages

(Reprinted from Barbados Advocate)

If Mike Findlay and his West Indies cricket selection panel were to be judged on inconsistency, they would pass with flying colours.

Desperate to find the right mix for both Test and One-Day International (ODI) matches, they have chopped and changed while sending confusing messages.

We all accept that their job is not easy. But the combinations which the established trio of chairman Findlay, Joey Carew and Joel Garner, along with coach (Roger Harper) and captain (Carl Hooper) have presented over the last year are more than baffling.

During that period they have given hope to a few young players and discarded them just as quickly.

In looking at the 22-man squad named last Wednesday for a one-week camp in preparation for the home series of five Tests and five One-Day Internationals against India, it is clear that the selectors are again playing to the gallery.

By way of outstanding performances in the 2002 Busta Cup championship, Stuart Williams and Junior Murray are now in line for recalls to the international arena after both have been in the wilderness for three years.

Williams, 32, the Leeward Islands captain and opening batsman, finished with the second highest overall aggregate of 722 runs at an average of 72.20, while 34-year-old wicket-keeper/batsman Murray slammed four centuries en route to amassing 642 runs (ave. 53.50) for the Windward Islands.

By the penultimate round of the Busta Cup, the legendary Sir Vivian Richards was strongly advocating a Test recall for Williams. Whether or not his words had some influence on the selectors, the statistics were there.

Assuming that Chris Gayle is now viewed as the premier opening batsman, Williams will be in a battle with Daren Ganga and the uncapped Windward Islands left-hander Devon Smith, who recorded the most runs ? 750 ? at an average of 62.50 in the Busta Cup.

One is now left to wonder what is going through the mind of Sherwin Campbell. Recalled for the recent two-Test and three-match ODI series against Pakistan in Sharjah because of injuries to Brian Lara and Ramnaresh Sarwan, Campbell played in the first Test before ironically, a finger injury sidelined him.

With two centuries in only three Busta Cup matches, the Barbados captain would have felt that there was justification to keep him in the picture. So was he ?used? by the selectors?

Murray?s inclusion is further proof of the selectors having no faith in a couple of the young ?keepers. The Dominican Wayne Phillip, who played a few matches on the tour to England two years ago even though he was not in the original squad, is not even playing first-class cricket now. If you want an answer, check the Windward Islands selectors.

Jamaican Keith Hibbert was in the previous West Indies squad preparing for the series against Pakistan. He was spoken highly of by Findlay as a wicket-keeper/batsman, leading us to believe that he would be the alternative to Ridley Jacobs. But while Murray was beating ball over the last seven weeks, Hibbert was scratching around even when promoted to No. 3. Result? Just another name.

And what about the Barbadian fast bowling all-rounder Ian Bradshaw? He, too, was in the West Indies training squad two months ago, then followed with a commendable Busta Cup which brought him 31 wickets in six matches. Now he is also ignored.

Findlay and company may also want to tell us about the Jamaican fast bowler Jermaine Lawson and even his compatriot, the little opener Leon Garrick.

Are we to believe that once you have made a squad of 22 and there is no marked improvement within a couple months, then you are certain to be cast aside, experience or no experience?

Furthermore, if the selectors are stressing that outstanding performances were key to the inclusion of Williams and Murray, they should explain why pacer Kerry Jeremy of the Leeward Islands was excluded. After all, he took 39 wickets ? the second most after Guyanese leg-spinner Mahendra Nagamootoo (41).

Apart from Smith, there are three other newcomers in off-spinning all-rounder Gareth Breese, fellow Jamaican Darrell Powell and Adam Sanford of the Leeward Islands.

Powell and Sanford have joined the growing list of fast bowlers who the selectors hope will deliver. Former ace West Indies pacer, selector and coach Andy Roberts has been sweet on Powell.

And Findlay, Carew, Garner, Harper and Hooper have been sweeter on playing the up and down game.

Squad: Carl Hooper (captain), Marlon Black, Gareth Breese, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Pedro Collins, Cameron Cuffy, Mervyn Dillon, Daren Ganga, Chris Gayle, Ryan Hinds, Wavell Hinds, Ridley Jacobs, Brian Lara, Runako Morton, Junior Murray, Mahendra Nagamootoo, Darrell Powell, Dinanath Ramnarine, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Devon Smith, Adam Sanford, Stuart Williams.

* SOURCE: Barbados Advocate