Will Devon Smith Get his Due?

Once in a while, a cricketer comes along who captures the imagination of the entire West Indies, either through standout performances with the bat or ball. That rare player fires the imagination of even the casual fan, who says, here is a can't-miss prospect that has the potential to be great.

Devon Sheldon Smith is such a player. Born October 21st 1981, the seventh of eight children, this left-hander gained regional attention with standout performances as a member of the West Indies under 19 team that toured England in the summer of 2001. He finished that tour with an aggregate of 374 runs (avg. 62.33) and 281 (70.25) in the one-dayers. He had already set tongues wagging when he led the Windward Islands youth team to the 2000 championships with a tournament high 336 runs.

At age 20, Smith's insatiable appetite for runs continued unnabated through the Busta Cup competition (750 runs, avg. 62.50), a season that included a century and 7 fifties. Selected to represent the Busta XI against the touring Indians in St. Lucia, he scored 91 and to prove it was not a fluke, took 69 off the same team in England at Arundel.

On the West Indies 'A' tour of England and Canada, Smith ended with a First Class aggregate of 465 runs (average 46.50), along with a team high individual score of 181 against Lancshire.

Unfortunately on the Canada leg of the West Indies 'A' tour, Smith slipped while bowling in the nets and strained his back. He saw a Canadian specialist who recommended a course of stretching and strengthening exercises, and because of this injury, he missed the recent Red Stripe Bowl.

Now comes the confusion. According to officials of the Grenada board, Smith is now fit enough to play but was not considered for selection on the Test tour to India.

Informed sources tell CaribbeanCricket.com that Smith has not once been contacted by the WICB to see how his rehabilitation is progressing, nor have they even recommended that he see a doctor in the Caribbean to ascertain whether he is indeed fit. This is a player with great potential, and who should have been selected to tour India and Bangladesh with the senior West Indies team as a third opener.

He certainly has done enough considering that players such as Marlon Samuels and Darren Ganga have been selected in the past with less of a resume than Devon Smith has built up.

We have seen this type of treatment meted out to players before. Remember the situation with Carl Hooper and his injury? Remember how he was ignored by the WICB to the point where he publicly expressed his loyalty to Kent, his adopted English county? That was in the mid 1990s but nothing has changed.

I will not even touch on the selection of Cameron Cuffy, who was not fit to be selected for the ICC mini World Cup, having not rehabbed a knee that he had surgery on, but is fit to be selected for a tour that starts three weeks later. Is there some miracle rehabilitation course available in St Vincent and unknown to the rest of the world?

Contrast that with the England Cricket Board (ECB) who named a team for the Ashes, along with an Academy squad that will tour concurrently with the senior England team. They have taken the time to explain the reason why every player was selected for either team, and have gone so far as to let the players who are presently unfit know that they are being monitored and what they have to do to get fit. For example, of Alex Tudor, the chairman of the English selectors, David Graveney said, "Alex Tudor has been included in the National Academy squad rather than the Test squad because we have concerns about his strength and stamina and want him to concentrate on these areas this winter." These players have measurable objectives, so as professionals they know what they have to do to make it to the senior team.

Devon Smith, who has to be a bitterly disappointed young man (who can blame him?) did not even receive a phone call from some lowly employee in the WICB structure asking him how his back injury was progressing.

Is this the new dispensation that we have heard so much about in West Indies Cricket? Where young assets are left to their own devices after being injured in the service of the same West Indies cricket? Is it any wonder that young sportsmen are turning to Basketball and Soccer and forsaking cricket? One has to wonder, what exactly is going on over at WICB Central?