PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC):
One of the critics of the selections made for the West Indies Cricket World Cup Twenty20 (T20) squad not only agrees with the decision to sack most of the selection panel, but believes that changes are also needed in the management team.
Former West Indies player and Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board chief executive Suruj Ragoonath told the Sunday Express that Cricket West Indies’ (CWI) decision not to renew the contracts of chief selector Roger Harper and fellow selector Miles Bascombe, when they expire at the end of the year. , was “the right thing to do, given the team’s performance and the whole selection debacle.”
The sackings come a month after West Indies’ failed T20 World Cup title defence, when panel selections drew widespread criticism for including an out-of-form Chris Gayle, fast bowler Oshane Thomas and Ravi Rampaul at the expense of several players . who were expected to be selected, such as Romario Shepherd and Sherfane Rutherford.
Ragoonath had called for the three-member selection panel to be sacked when the 15-man squad was announced.
But while he agreed with the decision to let Harper and Bascombe go, he said the changes needed to go further.
“We need to review the entire management structure of West Indies cricket, not just the selectors. We need a new team philosophy about the way we play the game,” said the former opening batsman.
The CWI has said that the recruitment process for the new selection panel will begin next month.
Until then, coach Phil Simmons, who was the third member of the selection team, will head an interim panel comprising captains in the respective formats, with CWI Director of Cricket Jimmy Adams overseeing the process.
Their first task will be to select a white-ball squad for three One Day Internationals and one T20 International against Ireland at Sabina Park, scheduled for January 8-16, 2022.
