Top officials of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) were yesterday furious over the non-selection of veteran batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul from the training squad for next month’s tour of the West Indies by the world number-two ranked Australia side.
The West Indies Cricket Board’s (WICB) selection committee, under chairman and former West Indies cricket captain Clive Lloyd, Sunday, announced the training squad for the Australia tour but there was no place for the left-hander who has played 164 tests and scored 11, 684 runs with 30 test centuries.
Chanderpaul’s whose test average is 51.37 needs only 86 more runs to surpass Brian Lara (11,912) as the scorer of the most runs in test cricket by a West Indies batsman.
At a press conference held yesterday at the GCB’s Boardroom, the board’s secretary, Anand Sanasie, described the decision as a “bad thing for cricket.”
According to the WICB Director, who was in Barbados over the weekend as the WICB top brass deliberated over whether the Guyanese champion batsman and icon, should be allowed to play the two tests against Australia,
the decision in essence was sending the wrong message to young players regionally.
“At the start of the England tour, I would assume that they should have told him `you have served us for a long time and at the end of this tour we are considering not selecting you further’ and I guess from my conversations with Mr. Chanderpaul he would then have announced his retirement,” said Sanasie adding ….”This was not done and it was admitted by the selection panel and coach in our meetings in Barbados.”
In his two most recent series against South Africa and England, the 40 year-old batsman ended with 183 runs at an average of 16.64, the Caribbean and
“Having erred in that area, the least they could have done was grant him the Australia tour to gracefully retire. Given the strong feelings about the selectors, I don’t know what to believe because I think there is more to this than actual performance,” Sanasie added.
Sanasie said the GCB would continue to offer support to Chanderpaul who has stated that he has no intention of retiring.
In fact, said Sanasie, Chanderpaul will be selected to represent Guyana in the upcoming Regional competitions which begin in November.
“Once he’s (Chanderpaul) performing he will be selected, so I don’t know what will be the WICB’s or the selectors’ decision if he performs well in the Regional tournaments because if the policies are followed, he should be selected to play for the West Indies team.”
According to Sanasie, he has been in c constant talks with the left hander who he said was devastated by the announcement.
The WICB director said that extensive discussions with members of the board are being carried out. He added that the situation was discomforting for other young players who might be of the opinion that should they give 20 years of yeoman service to the WICB they will still be treated shabbily.
GCB head Drubahadur was equally frank.
“This is a man that gave you 21 years, who stuck it out with you and the new coach is now saying he’s now willing to speak with guys who have created embarrassment for the West Indies board (Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell etc.). The WICB under Lloyd sent a team to see Sachin Tendulkar off in India and we can’t do the same for our icon in this part of the world?” Drubahadur questioned.
Sanasie was also outspoken with respect to the non-selection of
Guyanese batsmen Assad Fudadin and Narsingh Deonarine who were not selected for the England series neither the tour match against the Aussies.
“The GCB has a statement out which addresses those two players omission because Fudadin and Deonarine were taken out of the Regional tournament and sent to South Africa and if you’re good enough to be taken out to South Africa which is a difficult place to play cricket when they were on top of their game at the time and they are not picked now, that raises a red flag and the GCB is paying attention to that and made comments about it in the statement,” he declared.
