Dear Editor,

I’d like to commend Cricket West Indies (CWI) for parting ways with Chief Selector Roger Harper, along with fellow panellist Miles Bascomb.

This should have been done a while ago, but like they say, “Better late than never.” But why stop there? They should clean house.

The coach, Phil Simmons, should have been right behind them. He shouldn’t be leading anything. He’s an integral part of the problem. The white-ball captain, Kieron Pollard, should be relieved of the captaincy as well. He’s still a good player, but the team has regressed under his leadership.

It is not only that these two gentlemen were arrogant, but the impression I got from them was that they thought they were untouchables.

Six for 18 in a test match is embarrassing and humiliating. But these gentlemen don’t seem to realise that some of us fans were around when the West Indies was great, so we know what we are talking about. Messrs Pollard and Simmons went out of their way to defend the selection of the Twenty20 (T20) squad. And it wasn’t even a difficult team to select. You would have the captain the vice-captain, then Jason Holder and the rest, for the most part based on the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) performance. But to have Oshane Thomas in the starting line-up and Jason Holder, arguably one of the best all-rounders in the world in all formats, in reserve must be some kind of joke.

Ravi Rampaul took one more wicket than Romario Shepherd in the CPL, but he’s 36 and hasn’t played international cricket in six years, in comparison to Shepherd, who’s 23, in good form, and a good batsman.

It is not even about Chris Gayle at this point. He’s one of the best that ever played the game. And, to his credit, he’s out there attacking the bowling, which is the right thing to do in this format. Unlike the others who got bowled playing defensively. But Gayle and Dwayne Bravo represent the past, while Sherherd and Sherfane Rutheford represent the future.

Imagine the valuable experience they would have had going forward if they were given the chance to represent their region, which brings me to the conclusion that the panel wasn’t cricket-smart, lacked vision and common sense, not to mention perception.

In the first T20 game against England they were bungled out for 55, and if that wasn’t bad enough, they were blown away in other games except for lowly Bangladesh, who they barely beat by a mere five runs.

When you’re the defending champions you go out and compete — win, lose, or draw. With Pollard, Andre Russell, and Jason Holder in the line-up, how much more experience do you need?

Noel Mitchell

Westchester, New York

nlmworld@yahoo.com