Fire Them Forthwith!
Those were the words of the former Trinidad and Tobago
and West Indies opening batsman Suruj Ragoonath in
becoming just the latest addition to the crescendo of
voices that have been raised in opposition to the choices made
by the Roger Harper led West Indies Selection panel for the
Caribbean team’s participation in the forthcoming ICC 2021
T20 World Cup. The West Indies will be sending a squad of
15 players plus 4 reserves to the T20 World Cup to be held
between October and November in the United Arab Emirates
and Oman.
Ragoonath’s sentiments echoed those of his fellow former
West Indies opening batsman, Barbadian Philo Wallace, who
had just a week prior pointedly asked” when does their term
end!”
As former West Indies players, Ragoonath and Wallace, have
joined an ever-expanding chorus line of high profile individuals
whose publicly expressed concerns over some of the choices
made by Selectors Chairman Roger Harper and his cohorts
have now squarely placed them all under furnace hot fire!
Several Caribbean Heads of States had also weighed in with
their own criticisms of the selected squad. The respective
Prime Ministers of Barbados and St Vincent, the Honorable
Mia Mottley and Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, as well as Guyana’s
President Irfaan Ali have all expressed their profound
disappointment and disagreement with some of the Harper led
Selections Panel’s choices.
So too have at least three former West Indies legendary
greats. Sir Andy Roberts, Deryck Murray, and Jeffrey Dujon. “I
don’t see any great sense in some of these picks,” was Dujon’s
publicly stated reaction to the announced squad.
Long-serving Trinidad & Tobago Cricket Board President
Azim Bassarath who is also a Director of Cricket West Indies
(CWI), the governing body for the sport in the Caribbean has also said
that the selection panel must explain fully its rationale behind a few of its
bewildering choices.
“There are some people on the team, in my humble opinion, who are
very fortunate to be on that plane to go to the
T20 World Cup,” Bassarath said in an
interview with CNC3 TV.
“…and there are some – and I want to
call two names, Sherfane Rutherford
and Romario Shepherd – both from
Guyana who I think should have
been on that flight to the World
Cup.”
The omission of all-rounders
Rutherford and Shepherd
had already been flagged
by the Guyana Cricket
Board. In a strongly worded
letter to CWI, the GCB
slammed the selection of
the squad as a “fiasco” and
demanded the regional
governing body fire the
selection panel unless they
could justify the rationale
behind their choices.
Bassarath said
explanations already
given by lead selector
Roger Harper will
need further clarity when
CWI convenes a directors’
meeting on Thursday,
September 30.
“Things are coming out from
the chairman of selectors in
a manner, as if it is piecemeal,
piecemeal,” he said. “I am
hoping that at the next
directors’ meeting of CWI, the
management and, of course, the
President and the Vice-President
can clear up the concerns that have
been expressed by the cricketing
public of the Caribbean.”