Dear Editor,
After I saw the caption, ‘Sarwan snubbed’ on the back page of the September 1 edition of the Stabroek News, I decided to read the article and discovered that the West Indies Cricket Board had announced that the central retainer contract for Messrs Ramnaresh Sarwan, Narsingh Deonarine and Travis Dowlin had not been renewed, but that Messrs Andre Fletcher, Devon Smith and Keiron Pollard had been offered similar contracts for the new period from October 1, 2010 to September 30, 2011. I then decided to check the batting averages of the top current ten WICB players in Test cricket and One-Day Internationals and my findings were as follows:-
Comments
1. Messrs Ramnaresh Sarwan, Travis Dowlin and Narsingh Deonarine are 2nd, 8th and 9th respectively in the listings of the top ten in Test matches whilst Mr D Smith is in the 10th position. It seems as though the WICB is giving priority to players when they are from the bottom rather than when they are higher up in the listings.
2. In the ODI, Messrs Ramnaresh Sarwan, Narsingh Deonarine and Travis Dowlin are 1st, 5th and 7th respectively, whilst Mr Devon Smith is in the 8th position. Again these Guyana players are higher in the listings than Mr Devon Smith. Messrs Andre Pollard and Keiron Pollard could even find a place in the top ten in the ODI matches because their averages were 17.06 and19.92 respectively. Further they have not played Test cricket as yet.
3. I believe that we need effective representation from our two WICB representatives when these matters are been discussed at their meetings
4. I am also calling on the Minister of Sport of Guyana to write the West Indies Cricket Board and ask them to outline what criteria they are using to offer these contracts to the players, so that the cricketing public could be very clear on this system. It was reported in our papers that the Minister of Sport for Trinidad and Tobago will be making a similar inquiry as regards the non-renewal of Mr D Ramdin’s central retainer contract.
5. In addition to the statistical information stated above, Mr R Sarwan won three prestigious awards in the year 2009, although he was unfortunately injured in the said year. These were as follows:-
(a) The cricketer of the year for WIPA
(b) The Senior Cricketer of the year for Guyana
(c) The Sportsman of the year for Guyana
He could not have won these awards if he didn’t perform very well in the matches he played in 2009, and to achieve these performances, one has to be fit physically. Further, he had just led the Guyana Senior Team to victory in the inaugural 20/20 Tournament held in Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago. As a result of the team’s marvellous performance and his astute leadership, they are presently competing in a high profile 20/20 tournament in South Africa.
6. When the West Indies Cricket Board announced that Messrs Ramnaresh Sarwan, Narsingh Deonarine and Travis Dowlin central retainer contracts had not been renewed, to my mind it was very discomfitting and demoralizing because these players were seriously preparing for Airtel Championship 20/20 Tournament in South Africa. Therefore, when the three senior executives of the Guyana Cricket Board – Messrs Bissoondyal Singh, Claude Raphael and Ronald Williams – publicly condemned the time when the announcement was made, it was very comforting and motivating to the players because they realized that at least some of their executives were supporting them. So I don’t agree with those persons who wrote articles in the newspapers condemning these brave gentlemen.
7. After I looked at the composition of the touring party that was selected to travel to the present tournament in South Africa I realized that the technical staff needed a seasoned and very experienced coach to work along with the national coach, Mr R Seeram. Therefore one of the administrative officials should not have been included in the maximum list of twenty-three persons which were allowed to be on the travelling party by the authorities responsible for the tournament. My omission and inclusion would have been the Secretary, Mr A Sanasie and Mr R Harper respectively. My reasons are as follows:-
(a) The Secretary would not have much work to do at the tournament, because the team has a manager, who is Mr C Moore, and he is capable of performing all the administrative duties.
(b) Mr R Harper is a level 3 coach which is a very high grade in the coaching fraternity. He served with distinction as one of the leading coaches in the defunct Shell Academy for West Indies Cricketers which was located in Grenada. He also served as the West Indies Cricket Coach for the Senior Team. He had a coaching stint for two years with the Kenya’s government. And also he did short stints of coaching with previous mational teams. So Mr Harper should have been selected to be on the touring party as the supportive coach to Mr R Seeram.
I am therefore recommending that the Guyana Cricket Board should lodge a protest to the West Indies Cricket Board about the decisions made as regards the offering of these contracts to their respective players
Yours faithfully,
Ron Legall
Statistician/Secretary (CDC)
