A cricket selector’s job is never easy at the very best of times. Even more so for the current West Indies selectors, challenged as they are by the onerous task of choosing the very best fourteen or fifteen squad members for any given series from a relatively limited pool of available sufficiently talented players. Add to that the reality that their eventual choices will invariably be instantly scrutinized, and inevitably criticized, by all concerned including members of the media.
If they have not already done so, the Rt. Hon Desmond Haynes chaired West Indies’ three-member Selection Panel, will be convening shortly to select the fourteen or fifteen players for the forthcoming Home Series against England. While doing so, Haynes and his fellow selectors Roland Butcher and Head Coach Daen Sammy, will be fundamentally challenged in deciding whether the realities of the present or the needs of the foreseeable future should guide their choices.
In terms of the latter as everyone should by now, the West Indies suffered the embarrassment of failing to qualify for the ongoing India-hosted 2023 ICC ODI World Cup for the very first time in the tournament’s illustrious forty-eight-year history! As such the two-times champion, once losing finalist’s next chance for ICC ODI World Cup participation now won’t be for another four years until 2027!
Against that backdrop, many within Caribbean cricket circles would now very strongly suggest that the West Indies Selectors’ choices in terms of the announced England ODI Tour squad should indeed be geared toward the future, specifically 2027. Therefore, the only question to be asked and answered in terms of each player under consideration would then be how likely will he still be performing at his very best in four years.
Except for the odd freak exception or two, the historic tendency for male international cricketers has been to be at their peak and performing at their very best from ages 25-35. That reality should, therefore, suggest to the West Indies Selectors in terms of their futuristic next World Cup 2027 planning, that any player who is currently already well into their thirties would not, ideally, be worthy of consideration.
That theory has, however, been thrown into question by the performances of Darren Bravo during the recently concluded Cricket West Indies (CWI) Super50 tournament. The annual Suoer50 has long been established as the regional measuring standard for player performances in the ODI format. Bravo’s emergence as this year’s leading run scorer, with an outstanding 416 runs aggregate and equally impressive 83.20 average has, therefore, suggested that he should perhaps now be considered for England Tour selection. Despite the reality that he will be celebrating his 35th Birthday next February 06, 2024. By the time 2027 comes around he will, therefore, be 39 and quite possibly, unless he is one of the aforementioned abnormalities, likely past his prime.
Those who have, post-Super50, begun clamoring for Bravo’s England Tour squad selection have argued irrefutably that West Indies batting has been demonstrably weak within recent times. As such the inclusion of as experienced and talented a player as Bravo in his current very rich vein of form would be much to the team’s ultimate benefit.
The flip side of that agreement though, would be at whose expense?
During this year’s recently concluded Super50 Bravo batted at number three mostly, if not exclusively, for his native Trinidad & Tobago Red Force, the eventual tournament champions of which he was also the captain. If chosen to represent the West Indies against England he would, therefore, either bat at the identical position, number three, or a little lower down the order at four or five.
With Brandon King, likely to be the unanimous choice to open the West Indies batting, the question then becomes who should then be the very best options for the remaining four top order positions from two to five. Skipper Shai Hope and Nicholas Pooran both having, however, already indisputably identified themselves as two undroppables for the four remaining spots.
Who then should claim the remaining two spots? In addition to Bravo the likely, arguably strongest contenders would be the much younger Alick Athanaze and Justin Greaves.
As the Leeward Islands Hurricanes’ opening batter, Greaves was second among Suoer50 2023’s highest run scorers. His tournament aggregate and average, at 403 and 80.60 respectively, were both only marginally behind Bravo’s. He also identically matched Bravo in scoring one century and three half-centuries among his runs. Greaves’ strike rate of 84.84 was also only slightly less than Bravo’s 92.03
Based on those performances a very strong argument could, therefore, now be made for Greaves to be chosen as Brandon King’s partner to open the West Indies batting. If so that would then relegate Alick Athanze to one of the remaining top-order spots. With skipper Shai Hope having chosen to bat at four in recent times and with Pooran also being included, the only spots available for Atahanze would then be either at three or four.
Of course, the West Indies think tank could also completely throw those restrictions out of the window by instead choosing a combination of six top-order batters and only five top-line bowlers. In which case all three of Greaves, Bravo, and Athanaze could then be included.
Athanaze bowls reasonable off-spin, while Bravo has also been providing medium-pace seamers of a fairly respective quality of late. They would both, therefore, provide Skipper Hope with some additional bowling options should one of his top-line bowlers prove to be off-key and going for plenty.
The other batting options the Selectors may want to consider would be Kyle Mayers, Shimron Hetmeyer, and/or Sherfayne Rutherford. Mayers and Hetmeyer have, however, underperformed significantly of late at both the international and domestic Super50 levels. Suggestively so to completely undermine, if not totally negate, their respective claims for West Indies ODI first-XI inclusion.
Rutherford’s 2023 Super50 aggregate was 278 runs from eight completed innings. Just marginally more than the more internationally ODI-experienced Atahanaze’s 276, whose crease appearances were also as many as two fewer!
Whether the Selectors opt for six batters and five bowlers or go with the reverse five-six combination remains to be seen. That will be dependent upon their subjective view of which of the two would provide the West Indies with the best possible chance of winning the Series.
Regardless of which combination is eventually chosen, there can be no argument over the automatic inclusion of Alzarri Joseph, Jason Holder, and Romario Shepherd as the three front-line seamers. Holder and Shepherd will also, of course, provide much-needed depth to the batting with their respective power-hitting capabilities.
The two or three remaining bowling spots would then be reserved for the spinners. The leading contenders for which would be the incumbent left-arm spinner Gudakesh Motie, the off-spinning allrounder Kevin Sinclair, and one of Hayden Walsh or Yannick Cariah as a leg-spin googly bowler.
Walsh versus Cariah will be another major headache for the selectors. They both had outstanding 2023 Super50 tournaments with ball and bat. Walsh captured 20 wickets at an economy rate of 4.89. Cariah was not far behind, 18 scalps taken at a slightly higher 5.65 economy rate.
As an allrounder, Walsh also chipped in with 222 runs scored at an average of 44.40 and inclusive of three half-centuries. Cariah on the other hand scored 170 runs at an overly misleading identical average. The direct result of his having no less than four not outs among his five innings batted. In comparison to Walsh’s three, Cariah, however, only had one half-century among his crease appearances.
Based on their overall, comparative Super50 2023 stats, plus given the fact that Walsh is a much better lower-order power-hitting batter than the more patient Cariah, the commonsensical choice should be for Walsh. The debate should indeed not even become necessary given the reality that Walsh is also currently regarded as one of international cricket’s very best outfielders and catchers!
To what degree the West Indies Selectors will agree with any of the foregoing is, however, anybody’s guess and remains to be seen!
About The Writer:
Guyana-born, Tony McWatt is the Publisher of both the WI Wickets and Wickets/monthly online cricket magazines that are respectively targeted toward Caribbean and Canadian readers. He is also the only son of the former Guyana and West Indies wicket-keeper batsman the late Clifford “Baby Boy” McWatt.