Thursday, October 28, 2010

Give us Dowlin! We will give you Chattergoon!

Over the years the Guyana selectors have never failed to amaze me. If they are not dropping someone because he is too old (at 30!) they are picking someone else because “it is time to give the youths a chance”, or – in this age when every Jack, and his grandmother, carries a cell phone – the player cannot be located.

Travis Dowlin is not hard to locate. Even if you are finding it difficult just contact his club president, a close personal friend. He will know how to find him. So, it must be that at 33 he is too old to be considered for the recent WICB 50-over tournament in Jamaica.

But wait! Didn’t he score two half-centuries from four games when Guyana won the Caribbean 20/20? Oh, but he did fail to score quickly in the AirTel in South Africa when, according one reporter, he was following the coach’s orders to be watchful and lay a solid foundation. Okay! He did not produce the goods in South Africa but what does his performance in a 20/20 have to do with selection for a 50-over competition? And did he not produce another half-century from two games in the inter-county, which was used as a yardstick for the Jamaica tournament? And how remiss it would be of me not to mention a mere five months ago he was considered good enough to be playing Tests!

The other senior player overlooked for the Jamaica tournament was Sewnarine Chattergoon. Like Dowlin, he failed in South Africa, and apart from one innings, did the same in the Caribbean T20. To me this is not surprising since I do not believe his style of play is suited for that format of the game. What is surprising to me is his palpable lack of form dating back to the 2009 President’s Cup (50-over) when he averaged 7.75, and the 2010 four-day when his average was 17.75. It was a sad to see a player identified for big things ever since he appeared for the West Indies Under-15, deteriorate so rapidly.

In my opinion Chattergoon was due for a dropping. He could not go alone however, so the bartering started.

Chatters had to take a Demerarian with him. That happened to be Dowlin, while a younger Demerarian and a much younger Berbician (who ended up not playing a game on tour) made the squad.

A so me see it!

Monday, October 25, 2010

Follow the Tiger, Sars!

A lot of folks have been encouraging me to resume writing (People actually miss me). So, I finally gave in and here I am, but with a twist. I believe it is called blogging.

First up I will address an issue that is very much current, the overlooking of Ramnaresh Sarwan for, not only a central contract but also selection for the Sri Lanka tour, by the West Indies selectors. I will not get into the debate about whether the WICB was correct in snubbing Sarwan. The most I am going to say is that if you are going to buck the system your game has got to be airtight.

Sarwan is quoted as saying the contract snub did not affect his game but in my humble opinion his scores in the various forms of the game since the start of September when those offered contracts were made known prove otherwise. It is obvious that he has been put off by the happenings. I venture to say his state of mind had a direct effect on the performance of the Guyana team at both the AirTel and the regional one-day tournament. If a captain is not focused he cannot get the best out of his team. The all-conquering West Indies teams of the 1980s proved that, and so did the Aussie behemoth which followed. Sarwan’s performance or lack of, in the face of such adversity brings into question his mental strength.

In 2005 Shivnarine Chanderpaul was sent home for being “tired and lethargic”. In response “Tiger” displayed the mental fortitude we all knew he possessed from since the days when he was too small to score his runs in front of the wicket. Whether indeed he was tired and lethargic I don’t know but what followed was the purplest patch of his career, starting him on the way to being the most dependable batsman in the region and a ranking as the number one in the world.

Sarwan would do well to take a page out of the Chanderpaul book. A single-minded determination to succeed is what is needed. Shiv has said before he just wants to play cricket. Sarwan should adopt that attitude too. His future as a West Indian player depends on it. His droves of fans are depending on it, and West Indies cricket is depending on it.