Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author(s) do not represent the official position of Barbados TODAY.
By Tony McWatt
Chief selector the Rt. Hon Desmond Haynes has begun to develop a bit of a recurring theme to his announced West Indies squads. The 15-member West Indies squads chosen by Haynes and his selection panel now seem invariably to be comprised of twelve fully acceptable, non-disputable, choices, accompanied by three that are somewhat debatable, if not highly contentious!
From his very first selected squad which included Kemar Roach and an obviously out-of-form Darren Bravo for an ODI Tour to India, through to the highly contentious selections of Yanick Cariah, Sheldon Cottrell and Raymon Reifer for the West Indies team to this year’s T20 World Cup, Haynes’ 12 good+ 3 dubious choices have begun to take on the air of a trend. A trend which has now been continued by the contentious inclusions of Roston Chase, Devon Thomas and Raymon Reifer in the West Indies’ announced squad for their forthcoming tour to Australia.
The West Indies will play two Tests against their Aussie hosts. The first at the recently renovated, now massive 70,000-seat capacity pacy Perth Stadium from 30 November to 4 December. The second will be at the usual spinner-friendly Adelaide Oval from 8 to 12 December.
Skipper Kraigg Brathwaite, vice-captain Jermaine Blackwood, Nkrumah Bonner. Shamarh Brooks, Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Joshua Da Silva, Jason Holder, Alzarri Joseph, Kyle Mayers, Anderson Phillip, Kemar Roach and Jayden Seales are the other twelve members chosen by Haynes et al for the Aussie Tour. The respective selections for whom were fully merited.
The debate surrounding Royston Chase’s inclusion to the squad is as to whether it was sufficiently justified to have caused, as it has, the exclusion of Gudakesh Motie as the squad’s specialist spinner. In the last six matches he’s played in West Indies colours, Chase captured 8 wickets at an average of 47. His returns as a batsman have been equally paltry, 140 runs scored at an average of 14.
Chase’s overall Test bowling statistics show 79 wickets captured in 43 matches played. Avg.42.74. Econ 3.44. His batting stats are 2209 runs scored from 79 innings batted for an average of 26.78. His innings have included 5 centuries and 9 half-centuries.
At the First Class (FC) level, Chase has taken 160 wickets from 94 matches; Avg 33.37, Econ 3.12. His batting has produced 4787 runs from 158 innings for a 34.43 average. To date, he has so far scored 9 first-class centuries and 27 half-centuries.
Chase has, therefore, always been far more of a batting all-rounder than a front-line spinner. Yet despite that reality, Haynes and his fellow selectors have opted for him ahead of Motie, who as a left-arm spinner has to date only played a solitary Test. His debut appearance against Bangladesh this past June.
Motie bowled just 16 overs in his maiden Test, conceding 96 runs without having taken a wicket. He was, however, impressively economical, conceding only 2.68 runs per over bowled.
Prior to his Test debut, Motie had taken 117 FC wickets in 35 matches. at an average of 21.52, and an economy rate of 2.47. The question to be asked, therefore, is why he’s now been discarded after only one Test.
Surely his FC record which had prompted his Test call in the first place is deserving of a much longer run and further opportunities at the higher level. As further ammunition for the suggestion that Motie should have been chosen over Chase, is the actuality that Australia’s batsmen have both the lowest average (21.36) and strike rate (47.3) against left-arm spin than any of the other ICC Test-playing countries.
Devon Thomas’ inclusion is another that has caused some eyebrows to be raised. By the time the series gets underway, Thomas will have celebrated his 33rd birthday, having been born on November 12, 1989.
Thomas has not yet made his Test debut for the West Indies, so if he is indeed selected for any of the two Australia Tests, he will, therefore, be doing so at a relatively advanced age. His inclusion to the squad, as its backup wicket-keeper batsman, has also come at the exclusion of the much younger, soon-to-be (November 10) 29-year-old, Shai Hope who has already represented the West Indies in 38 Test Matches. Hope’s 1726 Test runs scored to date (avg.25.01) have included 2 centuries and five half-centuries.
Thomas’ FC record as a batsman is 5092 runs from 100 matches played for a 29.60 average. His runs have included 7 centuries and 27 half-centuries. More importantly though at the higher, international level, in ODI and T20 representative matches played for the West Indies, Thomas averages 14.50 and 8.50 from his 21 and 12 matches played respectively at each of those two levels.
Thomas’ inclusion ahead of Hope, therefore, seems like somewhat of a wasted pick. On paper, it seems unlikely that he will be making the starting eleven for either of the two Tests. At his age and with the twenty-four-year-old Joshua Da Silva seemingly entrenched as the West Indies first-choice wicket-keeper batsman, there also wouldn’t appear to be any real opportunities for Thomas to break into the first-eleven anytime soon in the foreseeable future.
Much the same can also be said for Raymon Reifer’s inclusion in the squad. As previously mentioned, Reifer’s inclusion in the West Indies recent T20 World Cup squad was one of the most contentious. Not surprisingly, neither he nor the other two highly debatable picks Yanick Cariah and Sheldon Cottrell proved to be good enough to be chosen to the starting elevens for any of the West Indies’ three matches. Their roles were confined to being those of towel carriers and bench warmers.
Hindsight is said to provide 20/20 vision, but many West Indian fans must now be left wondering as to whether the presence of Fabian Allen, Romario Shepherd and/or Haydn Walsh, who arguably should have gone to the T20 World Cup ahead of Cariah, Cottrell and Reifer might have made a difference to the eventual disastrous outcome of the West Indies’ participation. Reifer’s Australia Test tour squad inclusion, therefore, seems very much like the selectors not having learnt from the World Cup experience and being hell-bent on repeating the same mistake.
The issue with allrounder Reifer’s inclusion is as to where and for what role would he be used in the final Test eleven. If his role is as a batsman that also bowls who does he displace in the batting order? Certainly, neither of the two openers Skipper Kraigg Brathwaite and the likely debutant Tagenarine Chanderpaul. Would he be a better number three than either Nkrumah Bonner or Shamarh Brooks? That experiment has already been tested and proved itself to be an abject failure with Reifer having made only 22 batting at three in his most recent Test against Bangladesh played earlier this year.
It would also be difficult for anyone to suggest Reifer as a viable batting replacement for either vice-captain Jermaine Blackwood or Kyle Mayers. Or as a bowling replacement for Jason Holder, Alzarri Joseph, Kemar Roach or Jayden Seales, the team’s other frontline seamers. No readily obvious place, therefore, for Reifer on the first eleven and his role seemingly consigned yet again to towel carrier and bench warner. Thereby making him another wasted pick that could have been much better utilized by the inclusion of both Motie, as the frontline spinner, as well as Chase as an all-rounder.
Perhaps in making their choices Haynes and his Selectors may have been taking their cue from the advice that was recently provided by their CWI Director, the Jamaica Cricket Board President Billy Haven:
“We can’t do the same thing the same way every time and expect different results. If we are going to continue to do the same thing, we must do the same thing differently, otherwise we gonna have to do different things. We can do different things the same way or we can do different things a different way!”
About The Writer: Guyana-born, Toronto-based, Tony McWatt is the Publisher of both the WI Wickets and Wickets/monthly online cricket magazines that are respectively targeted toward Caribbean and Canadian readers. He is also the only son of the former Guyana and West Indies wicket-keeper batsman the late Clifford “Baby Boy” McWatt.
