Naming WI captain follows new policy

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados: A couple of days before the regional squad for the VB tri-nation series in Australia is expected to be announced, Chief Executive Officer of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Roger Brathwaite has reiterated the Board’s new selection policy including the appointment of a captain and vice-captain. A squad of 14 plus a few reserves were picked over a week ago for the January 14 to February 8 limited-overs series which will be contested by West Indies, Pakistan and Australia. The squad was chosen a few days before a two-and-a-half week training camp ended at the 3Ws Oval here but with the recent impasse between the WICB and the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) regarding players’ contracts, Brathwaite said there could be no earlier announcement of it. 

Only last Friday, WIPA president Dinanath Ramnarine called on the WICB to name the squad immediately. Brathwaite, however, explained that a process must be followed.  “You can’t really announce a captain until you have a squad,” Brathwaite said in a wide-ranging interview with CMC Sports. “There is a process for announcing a captain as you know. Once you get the squad, the selectors give a recommendation as to the captain and vice-captain and then that has to be ratified by the Board. “So until such time as this current situation is sorted out and we are actually given a squad with a captain and vice-captain, there can be no announcement with respect to those two positions.”  Brian Lara and Ramnaresh Sarwan are expected to be retained as captain and vice-captain following West Indies’ capture of the ICC Champions Trophy title in England last September.  

Brathwaite said in appointing a captain, the general procedure is for a round robin discussion or a teleconference. “If it’s a round robin it must be unanimous whereas if it’s a teleconference, then it’s just a majority,” he explained. In further explaining the process of selection, Brathwaite referred to the new policy, which the WICB put in place five months ago. He said it involves the selection panel of Joey Carew, who is convenor, Gordon Greenidge, newcomer Clyde Butts and new head coach, Australian Bennett King. “Those four gentlemen are responsible for picking the squad. Only after the squad has been picked and it is then handed over to the head coach, who then in discussion with the captain can refer back to his fellow selectors (for) the final XI to be picked,” Brathwaite said. “But it is very much the responsibility of the head coach in consultation with his captain and he has the fall-back of his fellow selectors in arriving at that final starting XI to take the field. 

“The review that was undertaken with respect to the management structure around the West Indies team was quite wide-ranging. One of the key things is that it is one thing to look at a management structure but the other critical component we feel in having success on the field is the entire process around the selection of the team. “We looked at what a number of sports are doing, what traditionally has been done in cricket and we feel that the system that we have put in place now is in the best interest of West Indies cricket,” Brathwaite said. “The initial squad, whether at home or away, will be picked by the four selectors. Once that squad has been handed over to the head coach, that’s when the captain will then come into the process where obviously between the head coach and the captain they will take a view as to who they think that starting XI should be. And obviously the head coach has the other three selectors, who he can also bounce ideas off and can get input from.”  The West Indies squad will assemble in Barbados and leave for Australia on December 29.