Cozier: Reflections upon WI selection for WC96 (22 Mar 1995)

Title: No Easy Task For Selectors Author: Tony Cozier Source: Sports Weekly (March 22, 1995)

There was a time, not so long ago, when a West Indies selection meeting would last about as long as it takes to consume a rum. Team for the next Test? How about Greenidge, Haynes, Richardson, Richards, Hooper, Logie, Dujon, Ambrose, Bishop, Marshall and Walsh? Oh, Bishop`s unfit? Let`s stick in Patterson? Agreed; then pour another rum.

The deliberations before the first Test in Barbados on March 31 are likely to require a few more rums on the table as there are more options now for the few open places than for years.

Considering that the injuries that kept so many of their players out during the one-day internationals would be healed by the time the real business starts at Kensington Oval, David Holford, the former Test all-rounder, and fellow selectors (captain Richie Richardson, team manager Andy Roberts and former Test opener Easton McMorris) can agree on at least seven certainties - Brian Lara, Jimmy Adams and Carl Hooper joing Richie Richardson as batsmen, Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh as fast bowlers, and Junior Murray as wicket-keeper.

Since the unrelated Benjamins - Winston and Kenny - have played every Test for which they have been available in the past year, it`s a fair assumption they will be the support fast bowlers.

That would leave two batting places. Having decided on the two, the selectors then have to determine the batting order.

The options have been reduced by the absence of key players over the past three series, making the choice easier.

A back injury forced Hooper out of last year`s home series against England. That have Adams a chance. Once Hooper returned for the tour of India, Richardson`s burnout prompted six months break from the game. That caused him to miss the tours of India and New Zealand, so it was virtually a straight swap. When a bout of malaria kept Hooper in hospital while the team headed for New Zealand, the 20-year-olf Shivnarine Chanderpaul was reinstated for the two Tests.

The absence of Desmond Haynes, who has failed to get sympathetic clearance from the West Indies Board over a contractual matter, leaves the West Indies short of opening batsmen. In the five Tests in India and New Zealand, there were only two opening stands of more than 50.

Phil Simmons was finally dropped as a Test opener after another poor series in India. In New Zealand, the selectors entrusted the top of the order to Williams and the 24-year-old Sherwin Campbell, a dashing little right-hander.

Campbell responded with scores of 51 and 88 in the only innings he batted, although Williams returned still without a Test score better than 48 in nine innings.

Back home, limited-overs specialist Simmons, was picked for the one-dayers against Australia and batted well. Williams and Campbell, sharing duties didn`t match up.

In the meantime, Chanderpaul, the frail left-hander with the phenomenal record of six half-centuries in 10 Test innings, didn`t get a show in the one-day stuff, for which his unspectacular but effective method is unsuited. Another left-hander, the flamboyant Keith Arthurton, got the No. 6 spot instead.

The selection of the opening pair will determine the final batting order.

If Williams and Campbell are retained, it would mean Arthurton and Chanderpaul standing down and Richardson, dropping in at No. 6. But that`s unlikely.

Firstly, it would be a gamble to entrust such a responsibility to two raw recruits. It was fine in New Zealand, but this, after all, is the mother-of-all-series, the veritable world championship.

It would also mean finding a place for Richardson in the middle order where the sequence of Lara at No. 3, Adams at No. 4, and Hooper at No. 5 was established in India and would not be readily separated.

The more likely scenario would be for Richardson to revert to opening.

The Australians` last match prior to the Test could settle the matter for the selectors who will be monitoring the form of Williams, Campbell and Chanderpaul.

After their fifth or sixth rum, they should not be far from the following 13 from whom to pick their final eleven: Richardson (captain), Williams, Campbell, Lara, Adams, Hooper, Arthurton, Chanderpaul, Murray, Ambrose, Walsh, W. Benjamin and K. Benjamin.

Source :: Sports Weekly