A reasonable Windies touring squad

Saturday, November 21, 2009 5:55 AM

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Garfield Myers

Sunday, April 12, 2009

All told, it's been a satisfying three-and-a-half months for Jamaica's cricket.

Despite signs of shortening towards the end, Tamar Lambert and his men had done so well early in the season that they captured the WICB regional four-day tournament and the inaugural Headley/Weekes Trophy with a game to spare.

Alongside that came the pleasing news that the ever-trying, hard-working all-rounder David Bernard and fast bowler Andrew Richardson had gained the nod of the regional selectors for the West Indies' short tour of England, starting later this month.

I have to confess I did not expect Bernard - who played a single Test against Australia back in 2003 - to be named, especially since he failed to get a century all season long.

But the tall 27-year-old's stiff medium got better and better as the regional season progressed, and by the end he had secured 32 wickets at 24.31 each. His batting average of 34.57 would certainly have made him one of the top all-rounders.

Richardson, I fully expected. Also 27 years old, he appears to have put the injury problems of previous years behind him and his 33 wickets at 23.12 each placed him among the top fast bowlers.

As chairman of selectors Clyde Butts pointed out, Richardson has the advantage of height - an ingredient that is seriously lacking in the current frontline West Indies' pace attack.

The presence of Richardson and Bernard means, of course, that five Jamaicans are in the 17-man squad to England - the others being Captain Chris Gayle, Brendan Nash and Jerome Taylor.

In case you are wondering why there are 17 players for a short tour, the reason is the cash-rich Indian Premier League Twenty/20 competition. Both Gayle and the fast bowler Fidel Edwards are contracted to the IPL and will fly to England just before the first Test, which begins on May 6.

That's clearly not ideal from a West Indies point of view, but at least it provides an opportunity for two additional players to showcase themselves in three warm-up games against Leicestershire, Essex and the England Lions (A-team) at the start of the season.

We are a long way from decades ago when even a short tour such as this would have embraced several three-day games against the English Counties. But we have to give thanks for small mercies. In these days of cutting things to the very bone, at least there are three warm-ups.

Something to bear in mind is that this tour is very early in the season. It will be very cold and damp - which, I suspect, is one reason the selectors have chosen to ignore the claims of the young, bright Trinidadians Adrian Barath and Darren Bravo. They may well find they are better off without having to cope with such weather at the very start of their international careers.

If conventional theory holds true, the conditions should favour the seam and swing of Bernard, Darren Sammy, Lionel Baker, Richardson, Nelon Pascal, Taylor and Edwards. The Trinidadian seamer Ravi Rampaul will presumably go to England for the one-day series.

The choice of the 21-year-old Grenadian Pascal ahead of the Antiguan Gavin Tonge, who had taken 38 wickets entering this weekend's final game of the season, was a mild surprise for me. This is not to discount the qualities of the broad-shouldered Pascal, who had gathered 25 wickets up to the last round.

Against Jamaica at the Trelawny Stadium two weekends back, he bowled at good pace for the Windward Islands and swung the new ball in to the right-hander. My feeling though is that Tonge, who like Richardson has the advantage of greater height and is also a former West Indies 'A' fast bowler, was more deserving.
Thumbs-up for the choice of Sulieman Benn as the lone spinner. If there is a Caribbean spinner with the potential to thrive early in the English season it would have to be the Barbadian, whose great height facilitates bounce.

Of the batsmen, Guyanese left-hander Narsingh Deonarine's 1,000-plus runs left the selectors with no choice but to include him. And after missing out on the Caribbean Test series against England because of injury, 32-year-old Barbadian Dale Richards bounced back with a thumping century against Jamaica and surely deserves his place.

Lendl Simmons was an automatic choice. But in England with the ball swinging about, the 24-year-old Trinidadian opener must remember to play consistently straight.

Many will argue that Devon Smith is lucky to be still there. Personally, I am happy that the selectors have opted to give him another run. The 27-year-old Grenadian opener had a number of good starts in the Caribbean series, showing good technique against the faster bowlers, only to consistently fall to the spinners. At Under-19 level, Smith was a great success in England. With Barath et al breathing down his neck, this could be his last chance to fulfil early expectations.

Squad: Chris Gayle, Denesh Ramdin, Lionel Baker, Sulieman Benn, David Bernard, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Narsingh Deonarine, Fidel Edwards, Brendan Nash, Nelon Pascal, Dale Richards, Andrew Richardson, Darren Sammy, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Lendl Simmons, Devon Smith, Jerome Taylor.

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