The selection of the final team for the upcoming tournament has caused a torrent of discontent around the Caribbean, with strong opinions regarding which players should have be included or left out making the rounds.
Despite agreeing that leaving Holder out of the squad was a mistake, he believes the majority of the team was determined over the last three months and has been selected along the lines of a certain philosophy.
“You saw the team in various matches around and the Caribbean and you could see the pattern of players. So, it was obvious that what the team has agreed to is what I call a very high-octane policy,” Murray told the Mason and Guest radio program.
“West Indies are undoubtedly going to be the best team to watch, I’m not sure if they’ll be the best team to support, but every moment of every game they play is going to be exciting,” he added.
“Every player is put in there to play a little cameo of some sort, batting bowling or whatever and it is going to be thrilling, people or going to be on the edge of their seats. To me what they’ve decided is these players are going to give us winner take all.”
The West Indies have been placed in a difficult group alongside Australia, England and South Africa.
With the World Cup just a few months away, the debate has raged on regarding the most effective composition of the squad. Experienced players like Gayle, Narine, and Dwayne Bravo, who all have world titles under their belts, remain eligible for selection. Some have called for the selection panel to look past the players.
Recently, the selection of veteran players Fidel Edwards and Gayle, for the West Indies series against Sri Lanka, set off vigorous debate around the region. While some endorsed the decision the Cricket West Indies (CWI) selection panel’s decision to add experience to the World Cup squad. Some argued that Gayle being 41 and Edwards 39, the CWI should be invested in selecting promising youth players.
In the meantime, top spinner Narine is only 32 but has not appeared for the West Indies since 2019 and prior to that had not played consistently.
“I don’t think that Sunil Narine is interested in going to World Cup, to be honest, given the challenges he had,” Ragoonath told the Mason and Guest radio program.
“Dwayne Bravo is showing that he is still capable and Chris Gayle for me is a big question mark. For the first time, I’ve seen Chris Gayle actually dive around in a match. The last game they played (Punjab King’s XI). He looks a little fitter, but at the same time, I am not inclined to taking Chris Gayle to a World Cup at this stage,” he added.
Gayle struggled to make an impact against Sri Lanka in March, scoring just 29 runs in three matches. Since the start of this season’s IPL, the batsman has been solid, if not spectacular for Punjab Kings XI after scoring 165 runs from seven matches.
“Of the three, I would love to have Sunil Narine on my side, but psychologically Sunil is not half the player he used to be and so Bravo is the only one I would give serious consideration to.”
The symbolic gesture has been used by sports teams around the world to take a stand against racism and discrimination. However, some teams, for various reasons, have chosen not to adopt the action.
The England teams took part in the anti-racism gesture ahead of each of the three Tests that were played in England last summer and for a limited-overs series against Ireland soon after. The team was, however, later criticised for not continuing the gesture in subsequent series. The team’s captain Eion Morgan has confirmed that England would join the West Indies ahead of the opener and would continue further discussion with the ICC.
“We have heard from the West Indies that they will be taking a knee and we will be joining them for the first game,” Morgan said on Tuesday.
“Games going on from there, we’ve been speaking to the ICC about the potential moment of unity before the game that we’ve been doing as part of our own piece at home,” Morgan added.
“It hasn’t been cleared up whether that’s a possibility yet.”
Despite being better known for his exploits in the red-ball format, Holder’s exclusion from the first-team squad and selection as a reserve for the tournament caused shock and dismay across the Caribbean, following the announcement of the final squad next week.
In international T20 cricket to date, Holder has managed 27 matches with an average of 16.75 in 18 innings, added to that he has claimed 22 wickets. In the Indian Premier League last season, however, he put on several strong performances during his time with Sunrisers Hyderabad and also had a strong showing against Sri Lanka in the series of practice games. He did, however, struggled against Pakistan and has also failed to make a telling impact in the CPL. For Roberts, however, the player's proven quality should have been enough to see him added to the starting team.
“I was shocked because he is the best cricketer we have in the region, bar none,” Roberts told the Mason and Guest radio show.
“I’d pick him as one of the first choices for the World Cup, what is he doing in the reserves. It embarrassing for us to see how we could treat our best cricketer. Jason Holder is our best cricketer," he added.
Holder has been consistently ranked as the top, or second-best Test cricket all-rounder for the last couple of years but has not displayed that kind of dominance over the shorter formats.
Known internationally for their flamboyant, swashbuckling style, the Caribbean team will head into next week's tournament as defending champions. However, despite having captured the global title on two occasions, questions have been raised in recent times regarding the team’s batting approach.
With a batting line-up filled with heavy hitters, the problematic issue stems from the tendency to soak up too many dot balls. Pooran admits that it has been a focus but in the grand scheme of things the team intends to stay true to its style as it has delivered success in the past.
“We have net sessions and we as a group have spoken about it, we have players to play certain roles, honestly. As a batting group, we want to get better, we want to improve, and getting singles is a part of that game as well, but our focus is not so much on singles,” Pooran told members of the media on Tuesday.
“We won two World Cups with the same problems, to be honest, not getting singles. I don’t think the emphasis is so much on it, but on intent and playing smart cricket. There are times that we know that will have to put our egos aside and grind for the team and if that means pushing a dot ball and getting singles, we’ll do that.”
