Benn left out despite record (10 August 1999)

10 August 1999

Benn left out despite record

Haydn Gill

The Trend of springing surprises by the region's senior selection panel extended to its junior one on Sunday night when Sulieman Benn was inexplicably left out from a 15-man West Indies team for next year's Youth World Cup in Sri Lanka.

Benn, a tall left-arm spinner from Barbados, missed out in spite of his outstanding performances in the just-concluded Nortel Networks three-day championship and more importantly, his even more impressive stuff in the limited-overs championships of the past two seasons.

The Youth World Cup, to be played next January, involves limited-overs matches only and no bowler can boast of a record superior to Benn's in the shortened version of the game.

In last season's competition in Trinidad and Tobago, his economy rate was a miserly 2.10 runs an over during seven matches, and this year he delivered at 2.82 runs an over in three matches in which he was also the leading wicket-taker with seven wickets.

His figures in this year's One-Day tournament were 8.2-1-25-4, 10-1-29-2 and 10-1-26-1 to follow up his 23 wickets in the three-day competition in which he was the leading wicket-taker for the new champions.

It would appear that the selectors placed more emphasis on the three-day form of the championship and opted for the only two slow bowlers who gained more wickets than Benn.

Those two are Trinidad and Tobago off-spinner Rodney Sooklal, whose 31 scalps made him the leading wicket-taker, while Windward Islands' leg-spinner was joint-second with 27 wickets.

The leadership of the team will be in the hands of the only two players with first-class experience and the only two survivors from the West Indies team that competed in the last Youth World Cup in South Africa in 1998.

Ryan Hinds, whose 487 runs and six wickets earned him the MVP award, is captain, while Jamaican hard-hiting batsman Marlon Samuels, who made his first-class debut before playing at the Nortel youth level, is the vice-captain. Both are also capable back-up spinners.

The rest of the team was fairly predictable, but 15-year-old Guyanese batsman Roopnarine Ramgobin and Windward Islands left-arm pacer Kenroy Peters might not have been everyone's favourites.

The two most consistent opening batsmen, Jamaican Brenton Parchment and Guyanese Sewnarine Chattergoon, have gained the nod ahead of the promising Grenadian Devon Smith.

Smith, a player with Busta Cup experience, is a solid left-hander, but he enjoyed a modest championship in which he failed to score a half-century.

Apart from Hinds, Samuels and Ramgobin, the middle-order revolves around gifted Guyanese Narsingh Deonarine, who scored three centuries in the two competitions, Trinidad and Tobago's Zaheer Ali, Barbados' Kurt Wilkinson and the Windwards' Greg Francois, who will double as the wicket-keeper.

The fast bowling is spearheaded by Jamaicans Jermaine Lawson and Andrew Richardson with support coming from Barbados' Callitos Lopez and left-armer Kenroy Peters.

The 15-man squad assembled at Kensington Oval yesterday morning for the start of a week-long Personal Development Seminar.

Squad: Brenton Parchment (Jamaica), Sewnarine Chattergoon (Guyana), Narsingh Deonarine (Guyana), Ryan Hinds (captain, Barbados), Marlon Samuels (vice-captain, Jamaica), Zaheer Ali (Trinidad and Tobago), Kurt Wilkinson (Barbados), Roopnarine Ramgobin (Guyana), Greg Francois (wicket-keeper, Windwards), Rodney Sooklal (Trinidad and Tobago), Camilus Alexander (Windwards), Callitos Lopez (Barbados), Jermaine Lawson (Jamaica), Andrew Richardson (Jamaica), Kenroy Peters (Windwards).

Reserves: Imran Khan Hussein (wicket-keeper, Guyana) Dwayne Smith (Barbados), Sulieman Benn (Barbados), Tonito Willet (Leewards), Orvin Mangru (Guyana).

Source :: The Barbados Nation