WI selectors continue to bungle with our best potentials and talents

Dear Editor,
Sport is a business, and the participation therein of our young sportsmen and women demands full time training and total dedication for them to master the skills and develop as genuine professionals. Genuine professionals must be nurtured and cajoled from very young to achieve greatness; hence, it is imperative that the clubs, national associations and the people and Government support them as our pride.
It is indeed heartening to see that two Heads of State – Guyana’s President Dr Irfaan Ali and Barbados’s Prime Minister Mia Mottley – are openly calling, with other eminent personalities around the world, on the West Indies selectors to justify their selection of the West Indies team to defend the upcoming Cricket World Cup title. The Caribbean people must demand that the criteria for selection of the fifteen (15) players and four (4) travelling reserves be made public.
The inclusion of Chris Gayle is highly questionable. This player ran away from West Indies cricket to play franchise cricket for money. He had ‘dirty runnings’ with the West Indies Cricket Administration, and was involved in negative public disputes with a former West Indies Test captain. Gayle ran into serious indiscipline issues when he was hauled before the courts in Australia. Further, he was involved in other issues that tarnished his reputation.
Gayle is undoubtedly a ‘pride’ player, a cricketer who has achieved greatness, but should make way for our younger players. There are many former players, such as Sir Vivian Richards, Michael Holding and Joel Garner, who gave way for younger players when they were at their peak of the game.
Ravi Rampaul also is over the ‘hill’, and should not be in the team before some younger players.
The selectors must justify the selection of Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo and Andre Russell ahead of world number one all-rounder Jason Holder, who is not included in the original fifteen. It is also interesting to note that the wild Oshane Thomas and Obed McCoy will be partnering Rampaul as the quick bowlers on the dry United Arab Emirates’ wickets.
The West Indies’ only player on tour, but as a reserve, who is recognised as a world class player is Holder. None of our batsmen or bowlers is among the top players in the world. The West Indies team is in Group One, along with England, Australia and South Africa, and in the play-off, only two teams in the respective Groupings will move forward. This will be a highly competitive World Cup.
Remember the name Carlos Braithwaite, a young all-rounder who, out of the blues, hit four consecutive sixes to enable the West Indies to win the last World Cup? Today, the young Turks such as the tried and proven Romario Shepherd, Sherfane Rutherford, and the world rated all-rounder Jason Holder can make a difference and defend the T/20 World Cup Title. It would be a total disaster for West Indies cricket and much stress and strain for the over five million people in the Caribbean and the millions of supporters in the diaspora if the West Indies fail to reach the semi-finals.

Sincerely,
Neil Kumar