Green light (21 July 1999)

21 July 1999

Green light

Tony Cozier

With lessons learned from the immediate past, the West Indies cricket selectors yesterday chose teams for two One-Day International series in September and October that should be a prologue to the future.

Chairman Mike Findlay stressed that the 14 for the three-way tournaments with India and Zimbabwe in Singapore from September 2-8 and with Pakistan and Sri Lanka in Sharjah from October 13-22 would not necessarily be the same.

At this stage, weve got to start exposing as many players as we can to international cricket, Findlay said at the Savannah Hotel, where he and fellow selectors Joey Carew, Joel Garner and captain Brian Lara met.

There is also the slim possibility of a tour to Bangladesh from September 24 to October 11 that would involve primarily first-class matches.

Findlay pointed out that since it had not been finalised, no team had been picked for it.

Earlier, Lara had what Findlay termed a debriefing session with his fellow selectors and WICB chief executive Stephen Camacho.

This is standard operating procedure for the captain after every tour and it was just a matter of reviewing the World Cup, he added.

Findlay had earlier proclaimed his disappointment with the teams World Cup performance that led to first-round elimination, and, if Sir Viv Richards advice to dump half may be too drastic, there are certain to be attendant casualties among those 15.

Phil Simmons and Keith Arthurton, well into their 30s, and Stuart Williams, in his 30th year, are unlikely to be called again as younger players are given the chance that they have been repeatedly granted.

In four different One-Day series in the past year the Wills International Trophy in Bangladesh, away against South Africa, at home against Australia, and the World Cup the West Indies used 25 players. Thirteen were over 30.

The emphasis must change as the selectors search for players with the discipline, commitment and talent to hold their own at the highest level. But they would have been careful not to throw out the baby with the bathwater.

A core of experience is necessary, so Lara, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ridley Jacobs, and the two great and durable fast bowlers, Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose, are certain to be retained.

Findlay and his colleagues had a lengthy, if not greatly encouraging, list to chose from yesterday.

Players of the future like Corey Collymore, Ricardo Powell, Daren Ganga, Christopher Gayle, Wavell Hinds, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Ryan Hinds could find themselves in one team or the other.

Source :: The Barbados Nation (https://www.nationnews.com/)