Lead selector Randolph Nelson insists there is still a place in Jamaica’s cricket for Jermaine Blackwood after the former captain was left out of the Scorpions squad for this week’s regional four-day match against Guyana Harpy Eagles at Sabina Park.

The sidelined West Indies batsman Blackwood was omitted from the Scorpions 13-man set-up after an appallingly lean spell in the four-day tournament.

Blackwood, 32, is a former Test vice-captain, and has been a key figure in Jamaica’s batting since his first-class debut in 2012. But in nine innings across five matches this season he has scores of 14, 16, 8, 18, 0, 0, 27, 0 and 5.

“His [Blackwood’s] form has been poor this season, but we still believe that he can contribute to the team in the future. It [dropping him] is not a write-off. We certainly believe that he can come back because class is permanent and form is temporary,” Nelson told the Jamaica Observer shortly after the squad was announced.

Blackwood was the team’s captain for the first three rounds, losing twice and winning once. He was replaced as skipper by West Indies white-ball batsman Brandon King as the team management sought to lessen the burden on his shoulders, and to allow him to focus on his batting.

But his struggles continued, culminating in the double failures last time out in the loss to Leeward Islands Hurricanes at Sabina Park in March.

“I believe he is just out of form now. We tried with him for a good period — it didn’t work out, we didn’t get the results we wanted, so we had to look for somebody else,” Nelson explained.

“He needs to play as much cricket as possible, wherever he can to see how best he can get back his form and his confidence.”

Blackwood has scored eight centuries in 142 first class matches at an average of 31.99. He has three Test hundreds in 56 matches an 30.18.

As a team, the Scorpions, particularly crippled by a brittle top-order batting, have endured inconsistent results over the opening five rounds, winning twice and losing three times.

In addition to Blackwood, the selectors have left out batsman Leroy Lugg and left-arm spinner Jeavor Royal from the squad which was named for the Hurricanes contest.

Batsmen Justin Beckford and Javaughn Buchanan, as well as pace-bowling all-arounder Andre McCarthy are the players included.

Nelson said the 30-year-old left-hander Buchanan could add solidity to the batting line-up.

“We wanted somebody in the top-order who we believe has the capacity to bat long and build an innings… so we can have a good, strong platform for the middle-order [batsmen] who have been the guys who are getting a lot of runs in some of these games. We think Buchanan in the squad will be able to give us that quality,” he explained.

He said Beckford, 19, and former St Elizabeth Technical schoolboy standout McCarthy, are evidence that selectors are looking toward the future.

“Beckford and McCarthy are in the squad which is an indication that we are looking at youngsters… and we believe that they can contribute and add value to the team now and certainly in the near future,” Nelson said.

The Scorpions, who were winless in the competition last season, are fifth in the eight-team points table with 53.4 points. The Hurricanes (81.2 points) are top of the pile, followed by Windward Islands Volcanoes (71.6) Barbados Pride (67.4), the Harpy Eagles (66.8), Trinidad & Tobago Red Force (51), West Indies Academy (49.8) and Combined Campuses and Colleges (24.2)

Jamaica’s chief selector said he is hoping to snatch third place by winning the final two matches of the season.

“We want to win the next two games to see how well we can finish. We’re fifth now and we want to finish in the top three by winning the next two games,” Nelson asserted.

Squad — Brandon King (captain), Marquino Mindley (vice-captain), Carlos Brown, Kirk McKenzie, Romaine Morris, Abhijai Mansingh, Peat Salmon, Derval Green, Ojay Shields, Ramaal Lewis, Justin Beckford, Andre McCarthy, Javaughn Buchanan.