Dear Editor,
Before the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) started, I wrote to the press a letter wherein I posited that the players that were bought during the CPL draft do not have what it takes to win the CPL this year, and my prediction has come to pass.
I alluded to the fact that Jason Mohamed and Rayad Emrit should never have been in the squad because of their poor performances over the years, and instead Colin Munro and Chanderpaul Hemraj should have been selected before them.
As I said then, those two — along with Chadwick Walton and Cameron Delport — had a very poor tournament, which contributed to the Warriors’ not winning the CPL.
Editor, I want to submit, though, that the blame must lie squarely with the Operations Manager, who has been with the Warriors since the inception, and who has been integral in the selection of the teams over the past six years. Over those six years, the Warriors have reached the finals four times and never won, yet the Operations Manager remains at the helm.
Something is definitely wrong. For the Warriors to win the CPL next year, there has to be new management with fresh ideas, who must buy players who specialise in all aspects of the game: batting, bowling and fielding. In other words, we must have a more balanced team, with no weak links. And the players who were outstanding during this year’s CPL, such as Luke Ronchi, Shimron Odilon Hetmyer, Sherfane Rutherford, Imran Tahir and Chris Green, should form the core of the team for next year.
I would not select Sohail Tanvir for next year, for the simple reason that age has caught up with him. He was very slow in the field and in running between the wickets, and as the commentators mentioned, he seemed to have been burnt out towards the back end of the tournament.
Finally, Editor, it is clear we need more Guyanese in the team. Remember the last time we won a T20 tournament, Stanford, the entire team were Guyanese; and looking at many of the players in the Warriors team over the years, many of them are no match for Guyanese players. Hetmyer and Rutherford are classic examples.
Yours Faithfully,
Imtiaz Baccus
