West Indies squad to face Sri Lanka

1.Chris Gayle (captain)
2. Sewnarine Chattergoon
3. Devon Smith
4. Marlon Samuels
5. Ramnaresh Sarwan
6. Shivnarine Chanderpaul
7. Dwayne Bravo
8. Ryan Hinds
9. Denesh Ramdin
10. Sulieman Benn
11. Amit Jaggernauth
12. Pedro Collins
13. Fidel Edwards
14. Darren Powell
15. Jerome Taylor

For once the selectors have got it absolutely right. Out go Morton and Parchment and Ganga; in come Ryan Hinds and Sewnarine Chatergoon, two deserving candidates who have done well in FC cricket for the past 3 years. Devon Smith was close to being dropped but he has dominated the Carib Cup since his return to the Caribbean and so is given a last chance to impress.

But the best news is that they have selected 2 SPINNERS! Yes you have read me correctly, the 3 blind mice have not just picked one spinner, they have picked two. Off-spinner Amit Jaggernauth finally gets a chance after 4 years of total regional domination. Slow left armer Sulieman Benn gets picked after a good season for Barbados and because they feel he has the attributes to perform at the highest level (he's 6 feet 7 and so gets good bounce even on docile tracks).

The quick bowlers were pretty easy to choose as they performed well in SA and are quite clearly the best we have to offer. Jerome Taylor, Darren Powell, Fidel Edwards and Pedro Collins are a pretty talented bunch IMO, and should do well. Pedro must have canceled his kolpak contract as thats the only way he can play for the West Indies still surely?

So who is likely to get the nod, Jaggers or Benn?

It depends on the balance of the team really, as Benn can bat slightly better than Jaggers.

However, Jaggers is clearly the superior wicket-taking spinner, as 139 wickets in just 33 matches at an average of 22.31 indicates. Benn on the other hand has taken 128 wickets in 37 matches at an average of 27.62.

I would pick Jaggers every time, but the selectors don't understand the art of spin bowling and therefore they will probably pick the one who can bat.

Thanks WIFAN.

Ashley Giles would feel at home in that setup then.

Without a doubt, and would have got a place ahead of more deserving attacking spinners like Jaggers and Dave Mohammed.

In fact I would say there are other fletcherism's in the current selectors thinking. Fidel Edwards appear to be our much quicker version of Saj Mahmood, as he gets picked purely because he bowls quickly, while Pedro Collins (read Ryan Sidebottom) gets left on the sideline as he cant reach 90mph.

Excellent. I hope Jaggernauth plays.


WIFAN - it's difficult to judge domestic West Indian players without knowing the standard of West Indian domestic cricket. What is the standard? Would you say it's as good as English county cricket? Are the pitches generally fair on batsman and bowlers?

In the 70's and 80's it was very good. I guess it's declined along with the rest of WI cricket?

I'd say that T&T and Jamaica would be up there with the best county teams as they have a heck of a lot of talent coming through. Barbados have a bowling attack as good as any in county cricket but a sub-standard batting line up propped up by the excellent Ryan Hinds. Guyana are the opposite of Barbados with a batting line-up including chatergoon, Sarwan, Shiv and a lot of talented under 19 players. Their pace bowling is truly mediocre though and not of first class standard.

The Windward Islands and Leeward Islands are poor teams with some good individual players like Omari Banks, Darren Sammy, Devon Smith and Runako Morton. They are both shocking players of spin bowling which might help to explain why so many spinners take wickets in the Caribbean.

Overall our domestic cricket has become very poor though. Their are still some talented players of all disciplines, particularly spin bowling at the moment IMO, but the pitches have been slow and low up until this year where they have been playing on the test grounds so the standard has been higher.

IMHO the thing that makes our FC cricket far worse than county cricket is the standard of umpiring. It is terrible and there is a culture of the 'home' umpire giving decisions against the visiting team. Chris Gayle got so annoyed that he felt he needed to bring the issue up in an interview.

Gayle vents his anger

It is hard to judge bowlers stats when they get lbws that arent even close. It is one of the reasons that so few of our batsman average over 40 in domestic cricket. Only Shiv, Gayle, Smith, Ryan Hinds, Adrian Barath and Sarwan have achieved decent averages.

Where's Darren Sammy? Injured?

Good to see Jaggers there at last. I expected to see him in England.

I still contend that half of these names are made up.

All names are made up you tw@t.

Darren Sammy has been dropped.

Harsh but they had to drop someone to accommodates the spinners.

Dello got told.

I'm really glad to see Jaggernath finally get a go. We don't usually see a 15 man squad picked for 1 test. I think he forced the selectors hand by getting twelve wickets and virtually bowling Trinidad to victory over the weekend. Granted I have little to no knowledge of county cricket to compare it but our FC cricket is horrendous. The only batsmen to get a century over the weekend was Shiv beating up on the schoolboys team that they have playing the established teams this year.

And Nash is still out I see... you guys think he needed to star in the last game, i.e. get Jamaica over the line against Barbados (which he failed to do) to get a look in?

Dello was bang on the noggin. You're obvo all just a little disgruntled and FOCKING TEMPER!!! sorry, was listnin to Goldie.. booka... disjointed.

Nash needs to dominate for 2 seasons in a row before he will be selected IMO. Ryan Hinds took the number 6 batsman slot with 4 years in a row of averaging 40 or more.

He has done reasonably well though and has a good chance of making it in the next few years. He was batting really well against Barbados in both innings until some truly terrible umpiring from the Barbados umpire cut his innings short.

I'm a bit surprised that they didn't mischievously pick Chris Jordan - just to get him to say unequivocally, that he had thrown his lot in with England.

Basil wrote:I'm a bit surprised that they didn't mischievously pick Chris Jordan - just to get him to say unequivocally, that he had thrown his lot in with England.

I was thinking the same thing. I think you have to have played representative cricket to be selected by the WI though.

Basil wrote:I'm a bit surprised that they didn't mischievously pick Chris Jordan - just to get him to say unequivocally, that he had thrown his lot in with England.

He's just signed a two-year contract with Surrey as an English player. Were he to take up an offer to represent the Windies in that time, he'd be out of a job.

Dello wrote:

Basil wrote:I'm a bit surprised that they didn't mischievously pick Chris Jordan - just to get him to say unequivocally, that he had thrown his lot in with England.

He's just signed a two-year contract with Surrey as an English player. Were he to take up an offer to represent the Windies in that time, he'd be out of a job.

Quite: but my memory goes back to 1995 when Andrew Symonds was short-listed for England's tours overseas that Winter - a ruse, I suspect to smoke him out.

I did wonder whether it might have occurred to anyone in the Caribbean to ask Mr Sanford to offer to buy Jordan out of his contract. It doesn't look like it - so definitely our gain and their loss.

The same thing could happen again - if he performs anything like he did in the coming season as he did during his introduction to FC cricket during the second half of last year, he's a racing certainty for an Academy/Lions spot.

Then the ball's in his court.

It's amazing where somebody like Nash

A middle aged (playing terms) guy who couldn't hack it in AUS domestic cricket, is closer to the WI team than Jordan

Nash has opted to play in our domestic cricket, Jordan only played a few friendlies for Barbados this summer. That is why he is closer to the West Indies team. Lets face it though, Jordan has only played one season of county cricket, even the West Indies selectors wouldn't be stupid enough to pick him after that period of time.

Tbh I have rethought my position on Jordan. I think he should throw his lot in with England. The Bajan selectors are disgraceful and would keep him on the sidelines to play the likes of Corey Collymore and Fidel Edwards. Their is a guy called Jason Bennett, who is an amazing young fast bowler with 88 wickets in 20 FC games at an average of 20, who can't get a game for Barbados as their selectors are so bad. In the one season he played for them, he was their leading wicket taker and yet he was dropped for the last game of the season and offered no explanation.

I'd prefer to have Jordan playing international cricket for England then see him rotting in Barbados club cricket like Jason Bennett.

WIFAN wrote:Nash has opted to play in our domestic cricket, Jordan only played a few friendlies for Barbados this summer. That is why he is closer to the West Indies team. Lets face it though, Jordan has only played one season of county cricket, even the West Indies selectors wouldn't be stupid enough to pick him after that period of time.

Tbh I have rethought my position on Jordan. I think he should throw his lot in with England. The Bajan selectors are disgraceful and would keep him on the sidelines to play the likes of Corey Collymore and Fidel Edwards. Their is a guy called Jason Bennett, who is an amazing young fast bowler with 88 wickets in 20 FC games at an average of 20, who can't get a game for Barbados as their selectors are so bad. In the one season he played for them, he was their leading wicket taker and yet he was dropped for the last game of the season and offered no explanation.

I'd prefer to have Jordan playing international cricket for England then see him rotting in Barbados club cricket like Jason Bennett.

Nash is over 30 yrs old, has averaged 20 something with the bat, comes over to play for jamaica has 1/2 a decent season and you are happy that he is closer to a call than one of the most promising young cricketers in eng!

You won't be saying this, when he helps ENG seal a whitewash at the kensignton oval, by bowling nash for none.

Bennet looks the good, hopefully he can keep playing for the combined islands, like he has this yr. (where was he last wk by the way???Injured?) If Barbados dropped Collymore (the most highly ranked WI bowler, last time I checked) they would catch heat either way.