Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Feb 03, 2015 Sports
By Sean Devers
My 72-year-old Mother is the proprietor of a Dating Service and from time to time would forget to write the appointment dates of some of her clients so I could understand why 70-year-old former West Indies Captain Clive Lloyd sometimes forgets what he says. Forgetfulness is normal for people over 70.
When Lloyd replaced Dwayne Bravo as West Indies 50-over Skipper with 23-year-old Rookie Jason Holder for the One-Day series in South Africa and for ICC World Cup, that selection raised eyebrows.
Holder was appointed Captain because Lloyd feels he is a good leader although he never captained any team at any Regional contest before and has played just 21 ODIs without reaching 25 or claiming a five-wicket haul for the West Indies.
The 31-year-old Bravo has two centuries and 10 fifties from 164 ODIs in addition to taking 199 wickets with a best of 6-43.
Lloyd, insisting that there was no victimization in the non-selection of Bravo and Keiron Pollard for the World Cup, said that the absence of ‘exceptional performances’ from the pair of Bravo and Pollard, coupled with the selection panel’s vision to move forward and look for young talent, were the chief reasons for omitting the two senior all-rounders for the ODIs against South Africa and the World Cup.
“They have a chance of redeeming themselves and getting back into our cricket in the future. One is 31 (Bravo) and the other is 27 or 28 (Pollard),” Lloyd said.
For the record Pollard is 27 and has three tons and seven fifties and 44 wickets in his 91 ODIs and Lloyd’s justification of performances does not reflect a fair picture for the two cricketers (Pollard and Bravo), as they are fourth and fifth on the list of highest run-scorers for West Indies since the 2011 World Cup.
Chris Gayle called the selectors’ move “ridiculous”. Gayle had said that he was stunned to hear from Bravo that one reason for the pair being dropped was that the selectors wanted to rebuild the team.
Lloyd maybe forgot he told the world that the West Indies is moving forward in a new direction with the emphasis on picking young players who has performed in West Indies cricket.
Yet 32-year-old Jamaican left-arm spinner Nikita Miller, who turns 33 in May, has replaced Sunil Narine in the World Cup squad ahead of Guyana’s Veerasammy Permaul whose 11 wickets is just one less than Narine, who finished as the top wicket-taker in the recently concluded NAGICO Super50 competition in Trinidad & Tobago.
The 25-year-old Permaul bowls the same left-arm orthodox as Miller and is also the leading bowler in the Four-Day Franchise after the first phase of four rounds with 32 wickets.
Miller is ninth on the list of Most Wickets with six, while he is sixth behind Permaul with 17 wickets so Lloyd is contradicting what he says with what he does by picking Miller instead of Permaul.
If experience and performance in a West Indies competition was the criteria for selecting a replacement for Narine then Dwayne Bravo, is only behind Narine and Permaul with wickets and was the best seam bowler in the NAGICO tournament, with an economy rate of 4.05 and a strike rate of 19.8 (even better than Narine and Permaul). This would have been a great opportunity to select Bravo especially since left-arm spinner Sulieman Benn is in the World Cup squad.
In September of last year the Berbice Cricket Board (BCB) were singing the praises of Lloyd’s appointment as Chairman of selectors when he was heading the Government’s IMC to look after the affairs of Guyana’s cricket but they are now up in arms against him with Permaul’s non-selection on World Cup team. Funny how views can change depending on who is benefiting, but in this case I fully support the BCB.
Where is the BETTER MANAGEMENT/RENEGOTIATION OF THE OIL CONTRACTS you promised Jagdeo?
Apr 19, 2024
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