Everest Cricket Club has made its disappointment over the non-selection of Shimron Hetmyer in the West Indies red ball training squad known.
The historic Carifesta Avenue and Camp Road Club yesterday issued a release following Cricket West Indies’ selection panel naming a 30-man squad that does not include Hetmyer, for a red ball high performance training over the course of three weeks ahead of the South Africa Test series in the Caribbean.
Hetmyer also recently lost his retainer contract for the upcoming 2021-2022 season and the club is calling on CWI to correct the injustice.
“We at the Everest Cricket Club call on Cricket West Indies and their selection panel to correct this injustice to the most talented batsman in the West Indies today.
“Furthermore, the ECC is calling for CWI to have fairness in their selection criteria. The ECC will support any system which seeks to create one of meritocracy but it must be transparent and all should be held to the same standards,” the release stated.
The club showed their support of the Guyana Cricket Board’s position on the issue of criteria and consistency in the selection process.
Following the contract announcement, Guyana Cricket Board issued two releases. The first asked CWI to detail the selection criteria while the second expressed their disappointment with the statements made by chairman of CWI selection panel and GCB technocrat member, Roger Harper who said the Territorial board’s two director, Bissoondyal Singh and Hilbert Foster were given the opportunity to have their concerns discussed when the CWI Board of Directors were given the list of players to be contracted.
The GCB, in its second release on the topic highlighted that it was still not received correspondence on the criteria.
“Hetmyer has been a tremendous talent for West Indies and it is bewildering how a player of his calibre is not among the top 30 in the Caribbean preparing for any international series,” the release stated while adding, “His fitness should not be used as a fault since it should be the intention of a High-Performance camp to aid in the player’s further development.”
Everest’s reckoned that it would be unfathomable to think his exclusion “is setting the stage for the casting away of another bright talent.”
