Dear Editor,
Many of the youngsters on this West Indian team will have left the field Saturday night wondering whether they can play cricket at this level. It is unfair to them. Most of them can, with experience, play at this level, but they need the assurance and help from a few senior players in their ranks. It is no longer about Chanderpaul, Gayle, the Bravo brothers, Narine, Samuels, Rampaul, Taylor and Ramdin. Only Chanderpaul and Gayle among them were truly great Test players, but the others all know they can play and the opposition know they can play. No international cricket team has ever played with so little experience in its ranks, and there never was a need for the West Indies to do the experiment. It is about these youngsters who deserve the opportunity to play for a while with a few senior players before they go out entirely on their own. The WICB has never felt an obligation to provide the true reasons for persisting with the idiotic notion that kids ought to be sent to compete against seasoned professionals. My fear is that these youngsters could suffer irreparable harm in the form of premature loss of confidence. I think they deserve better and I will continue to root for them.
Yours faithfully,
Romain Pitt
