THIS newspaper has had plenty of reason in the past to castigate the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) for gross inefficiency and an amateurish approach to management.

But just lately, there have been indications that the Board may well be getting into a more business-like groove.

This was long overdue, but the WICB deserve quiet applause for finally getting their academy programme off the ground with the opening of the Sagicor High Performance Centre in Barbados earlier this year. The evidence from the performance of the young players in the rain-affected regional limited overs tournament which ends tomorrow is that the programme is off to a reasonably good start.

In August came news that the WICB had proactively and decisively linked fitness to its retainer contract policy and delivery. The WICB announced at the time that they were withholding central retainer contracts to star batsman Mr Ramnaresh Sarwan and the up-and-coming Mr Narsingh Deonarine largely because their general level of fitness was “deemed unsatisfactory”.

The injury-prone, but highly talented Jamaican fast bowler, Mr Jerome Taylor who is currently recovering from a back strain, was among those denied a contract.

Then at the start of the week came word that Mr Sarwan had been excluded from the West Indies tour of Sri Lanka next month because of alleged inadequate physical fitness. But for the announcement of Mr Darren Sammy as new West Indies captain, replacing Mr Chris Gayle, the omission of Mr Sarwan would undoubtedly have been the most significant news item in West Indies cricket.

Over recent days, we have heard the West Indies coach, Mr Otis Gibson defending the exclusion of Mr Sarwan and emphasising the imperative that players must prepare themselves properly.

In fact, Mr Gibson laid down the law.

“Players nowadays are athletes and within their contracts there are levels of fitness that have to be maintained. From domestic cricket you have to meet those requirements and if you don’t meet those then your chances of being selected will be drastically reduced,” he cautioned.

Inevitably, there has been an outcry. The fact is that Mr Sarwan has the second highest Test match batting average among all current West Indies players. Indeed, last year when the West Indies pulled off a shock home series 1-0 win over England, Mr Sarwan’s batting was a main factor. He topped the batting with 626 runs for an average of 104.33.

But since then he has been regularly afflicted by injury and the WICB clearly believes inadequate physical fitness is a major contributor.

Note the comment from Mr Gibson: “Persons with injury problems need to address that. Those (issues) had to be addressed and we took the decision to address them at the selection of the team, rather than waiting until we reach on tour …”

Mr Gibson, the West Indies selectors and the WICB are clearly not convinced that Mr Sarwan is now fully fit, even though he has been representing Guyana consistently over the last two to three months in Twenty-20 cricket and in the current limited overs tournament.

In the circumstances, Mr Sarwan may feel he has been harshly treated. However, the message to all players from the WICB is very clear: The days of automatic selection to the West Indies team simply because of reputation and record, are over.