President Donald Ramotar is to raise the continued exclusion of Guyanese star batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan from the West Indies team at the next session of the Caricom subcommittee on cricket.
A statement today from the Office of the President said that Sarwan’s return to Windies cricket is long overdue and Ramotar will be seeking answers from the committee.
Sarwan lost his West Indies Cricket Board contract in 2010 for what the WICB claimed was his “extremely indifferent attitude and sporadic approach towards fitness”. He has not played for the West Indies since the home series against India in July, 2010.
The OP press release follows:
Time overdue for Ramnaresh Sarwan’s return to the WICB
His Excellency the President of Guyana Donald Ramotar has signaled his intention to raise the continued exclusion of Guyana and former West Indies captain Ramnaresh “Ronnie” Sarwan from the West Indies Cricket team. This would be done at the next Prime Ministerial Sub Committee on Cricket.
It should be recalled that Mr. Sarwan has an outstanding batting record, scoring 5,842 test runs in just 87 test matches, this approximate 67.1 runs per match, and yet he has been kept out of West Indian cricket.
This exclusion has forced Mr. Sarwan to seek employment in England, where he is the captain and a leading batsman for the English county team Leicestershire. Currently he is regarded as one of the leading batsmen in English county cricket with three magnificent centuries so far.
Sarwan has a strong track record of performance in Test cricket with thirty-one half centuries, fifteen centuries with his highest test score of 291 runs. Yet despite these seminal performances he is being overlooked by the WICB. He is also an excellent one-day player with more than 5,000 one-day international runs at an average of 43.41. His track record on the field certainly earns him a place in the team. The President is calling for a fair and transparent system in the selection of players. He would like the selection criterion to be known to all, and that this objective method be used, rather that unclear subjectivity. He hopes that with such a fair and transparent system that Mr. Sarwan would easily regain his place in the WICB team.
