Why is Shiv not in West Indies limited overs line-up?

Fri Feb 21, 2013

EDITOR: I was amazed to see so many officials– ten–in the West Indies squad, selected to oppose Ireland now underway in Kingston, Jamaica.{{more}}

In the glory days when West Indies was at the top of the ladder in international cricket there were only two, the manager and coach, but now there are: head coach Ottis Gibson, team operations manager Richie Richardson, three assistant coaches: Stuart Williams, Andrew Coley, and Saqlain Mustaq; physiotherapist C.J. Clark; strength and conditioning co-ordinator Hector Martinez Charles; video statistical analyst Richard Berridge; massage therapist Virgil Browne; and media relations manager Philip Spooner.

Critics say that there are far too many coaches and assistants and top heavy officials and instead of getting better results, the performance of the players is sub-standard.

The selectors named two teams one for the One day Internationals and another for the T/20. Dwayne Bravo leads the ODIs, while Darren Sammy will captain the T20. Chris Gayle, Sunil Narine, Darren Sammy, Dwayne Bravo and wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin are in both squads. It is noticeable that no Guyanese is in either squad and one wonders why. Is it because the team from the Republic did not perform very well in the just concluded NAGICO 50-over tournament? In my view, it is not because of the team’s disappointing showing, but there ought to be other reasons, because the selectors ought to look at the performance of individual players and not the entire team.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the best batsman in the West Indies, has not been named in the squad, despite the fact that he scored two half centuries in both matches that he played and was responsible for solid opening partnerships. Moreover, Shiv has 11 centuries and 59 half centuries in his 268 ODIs, at an average of 41.60 and scored nearly 12,000 Test runs. He also scored the third fastest century in Test cricket. He is also an excellent fieldsman. What else can a cricketer do to be in the squad?

Oscar Ramjeet