Courtney Browne appointed as West Indies selector

The West Indies Cricket Board has approved the review committee's recommendation to include former wicketkeeper Courtney Browne in the West Indies selection panel. The decision was taken at the last meeting of the board of directors in St Lucia, as the previous selection panel's term concluded on July 31. Browne replaces former West Indies spinner Raphick Jumadeen in the three-member panel, while chairman Clyde Butts and Robert Haynes have been reappointed for the next two-year term.

Butts thanked the WICB for being reappointed, and extended a welcome to Browne. "I'm pleased to be reappointed chairman of the selection panel and I am confident that we will work closely as a group as we continue on a restructuring pathway.

"I welcome Courtney to the panel and look forward to working with him and Robert, along with head coach Ottis Gibson as we put our best efforts together to move West Indies cricket forward," Butts said.

Browne made his West Indies debut in 1995, playing 20 Tests and 46 ODIs in a ten-year long stop-start career during which he was one of the first-choice wicketkeepers. "It is a privilege to be afforded the opportunity to serve West Indies cricket again. I feel honoured and I will put my best foot forward," Browne said.

"I would have played cricket with some of the players who are still in the West Indies team and there is a lot more involvement in cricket now and so I think I will be able to relate to the players a lot better."

Browne had served as an alternate selector on the previous selection panel alongside former players Stuart Williams and Nehemiah Perry. The one-time Barbados captain has also served as the chairman of the Barbados Cricket Association selection panel for the past two years, in addition to being the team's manager.

Browne's tenure begins in a period when West Indies cricket has hit unforeseen lows on the field, having managed only 18 Test victories since January 2000. Against this background, the board has set out to prepare a selection policy document with guidelines chalking out the WICB's action plan with regards to selection.

The review committee comprising Ernest Hilaire, Joel Garner, Clive Lloyd and WICB chief cricket operations officer Tony Howard, interviewed several candidates before recommending Browne.