Dear Editor,
“Where are the promising young cricketers?”-Cozier.
One of the ways of addressing such an issue is to take stock of the existing supply, and do the best you can to encourage and help them to improve until such time as you can find adequate replacements.
Chanderpaul is younger than the Pakistan Test and one-day captain who equalled Sir Richard`s record for the fastest Test century just last year. There is no greater student of the art and science of batting. Gayle is two or three years younger than the three leading Sri Lankan batsmen who are in their late thirties.
Sarwan , who is thirty-five, is the youngest modern batsman to have been forced off a Test team with fifteen Test centuries and several one-day centuries under his belt. Marlon Samuels is thirty-four and was out of cricket between twenty-eight and thirty-one. In 2012 he was a Wisden Cricketer of the year.
Kieron Powell is still a kid and has already achieved the feat of a century in each innings of a Test match. Adrian Barath has had a bad year or two, but anyone who knows cricket well can see his huge potential, and Lara has said he is very good.
Devon Smith is thirty-three, and maybe the least awkward left-hander in the game. He has had very little coaching, and his few flaws are easily corrected. Donovan Pagon is the same age as Dwayne Bravo. He is a huge talent whom Jamaica did not encourage to remain at home. Dwayne Bravo has been told that since he likes to make money in 20-20 cricket, he should stick to it.
Darren Bravo is a certified upper class batman. Kieron Pollard has been given the same message that Dwayne Bravo has been given. I do not know how many times Lendl Simmonds must prove he can bat. Xavier Marshall is not yet thirty. He once held the record for sixes in one-day cricket.
Johnson Charles has two centuries in one-day cricket, one in Australia.
Narcine Deonarine was once the best 15-year-old in Guyana and has demonstrated first-rate batting skills with his disciplined off-spinners on many occasions. Russell and Sammy can hit with the best. Sammy is cool and confident and Russell may be the best athlete in the game. Lewis, the young Trinidadian left-hander has already shown real quality.
I am sure there are others.
The trouble is someone is always insulting them, belittling them and not recognizing that they are talented athletes who do not get the kind of support that cricketers in other countries take for granted. I hope whoever wins the presidency can multi-task, so that while he is building for the future he will direct some serious energy to help those I have outlined, as well as some others.
Yours faithfully,
Romain Pitt
