Life of Harper-led Selection Panel extended until end of 2021

Cricket West Indies (CWI) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Johnny Grave has confirmed on the Mason and Guest radio programme in Barbdos on Tuesday that the Roger Harper-led Selection Panel will continue to perform selection duties until the end of 2021.

While many are calling left, right and centre for the selection panel to be dismissed after that T20 World Cup disaster for the West Indies, Grave shares a different point of view. “Both the team management and selectors are coming up to the end of their contract (two-year contract), and we have extended for the end of the year. They are going through a review period,” he said.
“We did not want to review performances and extending or not extending contracts during the World Cup with the amount of cricket we got going on, we just extended to the end of the year. Once we go through that review system, we will be making some announcements,” Grave disclosed.

Former West Indies off-spinner and coach Roger Harper is among four men chosen by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) to be on the Senior Selection Panel for the regional team, and Grave has said it is not about chopping and changing, but about making long-term structural changes to produce winning teams.
Currently Lead Selector, Harper is a Guyanese, while the others on the panel are former Windward Islands batsman Miles Bascombe and Windies Coach Phil Simmons.
Harper’s international career lasted for 13 years, from 1983 to 1996, during which he distinguished himself as a brilliant fielder. His Test bowling average of 28.06 is superior to that of Lance Gibbs, giving him the leading average among all West Indian spinners with at least 25 Test wickets.
After his playing career Harper became a coach, taking over the West Indies Team between 2000 and 2003, and also managing the West Indies Youth Team in 2005.
However, in late December 2005, Harper was approached by Cricket Kenya with an offer to take over stewardship of the Kenya team. After this, he went on to coach the West Indies team.
Bascombe is a Vincentian cricketer who played a single Twenty20 international for the West Indies in 2011. In West Indian domestic cricket, he has played for the Windward Islands and the Combined Campuses and Colleges.
With another T20 World Cup looming in a year’s time, only time will tell if the duo of Harper and Bascombe, along with Head Coach Phil Simmons, would be able to rebuild the side after a poor T20 World Cup campaign. (Brandon Corlette)