IT was with bemusement and surprise that I perused last week’s Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) squad that will compete in the shortened WICB regional four-day first-class championship this season.

The philosophy which presumably underpins the formation of the CCC team is the mobilisation of a core of players from the tertiary institutions across the region who possess the requisite aptitude and attitude for the game; who fall just below the first-team standard of their individual territories; who can provide options for the West Indies selectors in the future, and who will simultaneously function as a Development Squad.

Further, I assume that the CCC was conceptualised to ensure the sustainability of cricket within these institutions against the backdrop of other competing sports — athletics, football and basketball — which offer more attractive incentives, like scholarships.

For some reason, however, the criteria for selection to this team has been shrouded in secrecy, with cricket fans around the region having to be groping in the dark and second-guessing in order to unravel its real essence.

But back to this season’s squad.

The first element of surprise came in the form of Floyd Reifer, a 37-year-old underachiever who has been elected to lead the team. This is a backward step and a clear insistence on maintaining the “old guard” at all cost.

A long-time campaigner at the regional level, Reifer is an average batsman and leader, as was accentuated by his inauspicious stint at the helm of the makeshift West Indies squad last year.

His questionable capacity in both areas, along with his untenable prospect of ever playing for the West Indies again, makes his continued inclusion to the CCC squad quite ill-advised.

Selections of this nature suggest a paucity of leadership among the college players, with last year’s captain, Simon Jackson, although being a part of the squad, having to make way for Reifer.

This is a distinctive setback for Jackson, who captains Kingston Cricket Club domestically and as a leader is regarded by players, fans and administrators as a deep thinker of the game.

Again, the inclusion of eight virtually unrecognisable — whether by name or exploit — Barbadians in a squad of 14 is itself a mammoth puzzle since Barbados has struggled to find a decent squad over the past few years and is comfortably behind Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana in the regional pecking order.

In short, Barbados has been effectively allowed to field two teams in the tournament as the CCC has for too long been run as an unofficial Bajan “B” team — which has generally failed to make an impression on the regional landscape since its genesis a few seasons ago.

Ironically, if any territory deserved to field a “B” team it wouldn’t be Barbados, but rather Jamaica or T&T by virtue of recent results, strength and organisation of their cricketing programmes, especially at the youth level, the depth of players at their disposal, and their current impact and contribution to the Senior West Indies team.

Yet I refuse to believe that the makeup of the CCC squad is at all influenced by its Cave Hill headquarters and a few individuals who were behind the squad’s emergence; that we as a region have surreptitiously returned to insularity, and that promising 20-year-olds like former West Indies Youth star Nkrumah Bonner, Zeniffe Fowler — the most prolific batsman in last season’s Super League — and Shacoya Thomas cannot find a place on a regional college team.

Interestingly Bonner, who attends university here in Jamaica, travelled to Barbados at short notice, made 108 and snared three wickets in the CCC trial match last week, but evidently was never going to be selected even had he made a thousand runs.

Two other youngsters in Kjorn Ottley of Trinidad and Tobago and Raymond Reifer of Barbados also made centuries in that practice game, but at 20 and 19 years old, respectively, were likewise ignored.

Since its conception a few seasons ago, the composition of successive CCC teams has done little to dispel the accusations of discrimination and insularity, with this latest episode merely adding fuel to the fire.

If those who select and manage the team have lost their way, perhaps they should be reminded that these collegians are principally playing for recognition and individual pride since they are not representing a territory.

For the CCC to salvage some credibility while simultaneously boosting its performance, I propose a more transparent method of selection — on merit — with an emphasis on youth and potential, rather than on that nebulous and problematic criterion that they call “experience”, which is merely the perpetuation of a sentimental and ineffectual “Old Boys Club”.

The following is that dubious CCC squad:

Floyd Reifer (captain), Simon Jackson, Omar Phillips, Kyle Corbin, Nekoli Parris, Romel Currency, Chadwick Walton, Ryan Austin, Jason Bennett, Gilford Moore, Kevon McLean, Khismar Catlin, Kavesh Kantasingh.