Chief selector Roger Harper has admitted to being concerned about the future of Shimron Hetmyer, after the talented stroke-maker this week lost his Cricket West Indies (CWI) central retainer contract.
The 24-year-old Hetmyer was one of 11 players not retained by CWI for the period beginning July 1, following a difficult last 12 months which saw him feature in only a smattering of games for the Caribbean side.
However, Harper said CWI were committed to partnering with the Guyanese left-hander to ensure he was able to get the best out of his potential in coming years.
“Naturally when you have that sort of potential available, we want to see it reach the sort of level that it is capable of reaching,” Harper told an online media conference on Thursday.
“So yes, we are concerned. Yes, we will continue to work with Shimron and yes, we will try to get him to give the sort of focus that we think is required for him to maximise his potential.”
Hetmyer was fast-tracked into the West Indies senior squad after leading West Indies Under-19s to the capture of the ICC Youth World Cup in Bangladesh in 2016. He subsequently made his debut in all three formats the following year, having the biggest impact in One-Day Internationals where he lashed the first of five career hundreds in only his third game.
Hetmyer averages 36 in ODIs but has not played since being dropped after scores of six and eight in two matches against Ireland last year January.
He has not played a Test – where he averages just under 28 – since November, 2019 after opting out of last year’s tour of England and the tour of Bangladesh earlier this year due to COVID-19 concerns. He has not featured in a T20 International since the tour of New Zealand last November.
To compound matters, Hetmyer was ruled out of the white-ball phase of the recent Sri Lanka series after failing to attain the minimum fitness standards set out by CWI. However, Harper said he still backed Hetmyer to become one of the best in the world, but warned it would require improved focus to reach those heights.
“I still think that Shimron is the sort of player with the ability to be a world class player in every format going forward but I think that needs a particular kind of focus and that’s what we want to see from Shimron,” Harper stressed.
“We just think he needs to be a little more focused and try to maximise his skills he’s been blessed with as best as he could.”
Harper assured though that Hetmyer was not completely lost to the CWI retainer system.
“If you lose your CWI contract, then you fall onto the franchise contract so it’s not that you’re completely out of the system and left to your own devices,” he noted.
There has been some criticism aimed at CWI for their axing of several players from the contracts list, especially when COVID-19 restricted the number of games which could be played during the eligibility period.
However, Harper argued that most players featured in the minimum number of games required for assessment but Hetmyer had been thwarted by his lack of fitness.
“In Hetmyer’s case, Hetmyer had the opportunity to play the required number of games but his fitness issues did not allow him to,” Harper said.
Hetmyer has continued to ply his trade in the lucrative Indian Premier League where he turned out for Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2019 and Delhi Capitals in 2020 and this year.
The evaluation period for the 2021-22 contracts covered performances and statistics from April 1, 2020 to April 1, 2021. This was also supported by statistics from the previous 2019-2020 evaluation period.
During the main evaluation period, Hetmyer only played two Twenty20 Internationals and had scores of 0 and 25. He played no One-Day Internationals or Tests during that period. From April 1, 2019 to April 1, 2020, he had 18 ODI innings, scoring 531 runs at an average of 31.23. He managed two fifties and a best of 139 against India in Chennai. In T20I, he made 241 runs from 12 innings at an average of 26.77 and an average strike (over 12 innings) of 107.29, while in Tests, he had scores of 35, 1, 34, 1 and 13.
According to Harper, a batsman would need to average a minimum of 30 in Tests or ODIs or have a Batsman Average and Strike Rate combined (BASR) of 150, and play at least 50 per cent of the matches during the evaluation period.
Harper explained: “We have to appreciate as well that these are performance-based contracts during the evaluation period as well as the selection panel must feel that the players will play a major role or form the nucleus of the various teams going forward. . .The players who were not awarded contracts, their performances over the period did not meet the necessary criteria and you had new players who came to the fore and performed well, so they were offered contracts.”
Harper added that for West Indies to become a more competitive force, players must earn their “stripes”.
“Going forward, if we want to see our team progress, if we want to compete with the best in the world, we have to be more conscious of the fact that we have to earn our stripes and we have to perform consistently, and I think our retainer contracts are given on that basis.” (CMC/NewsRoom)
