West Indies fast bowling great Andy Roberts believes Shimron Hetmyer erred when deciding to forego the West Indies tour of England.

Hetmyer, 23, seen as one of the rising stars in West Indies cricket, was among three players who opted out of the tour #RaisetheBat series, largely due to safety concerns. His Guyanese compatriot Keemo Paul and Trinidadian middle-order batsman Darren Bravo, also decided to stay home despite assurances given by both CWI and the ECB that they would be kept safe in a bio-secure environment.

Roberts, who was a member of a fearsome, four-pronged West Indies pace attack from the 1970s into the 1980s, believes the decision not to go was foolhardy.

“They would have played an integral part of the batting,” he said during a recent conversation with Michael Holding on Holding’s YouTube channel. He suggested that the tour to England was an opportunity to improve his batting.

“As much as we don’t like the way Hetmyer has been playing, he is one of the batsmen of the future. But somebody has to get into his head and let him realize that you cannot score runs sitting in the pavilion.”