ST JOHN’S, Antigua – The  West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has received numerous queries from the media regarding the Selection Committee not having recommended Ramnaresh Sarwan, Jerome Taylor and Narsingh Deonarine for Central Retainer or Developmental contracts for the period October 1, 2010 to September 30, 2011.
The WICB issues the following information as clarification:
Ramnaresh Sarwan
The Team Management, Selection Committee and the WICB are concerned about Mr Sarwan’s extremely indifferent attitude and sporadic approach towards fitness, particularly in recent years.
It is the considered view of the Selection Committee, following consultations with the specialists in the Team Management, that Ramnaresh’s less-than-satisfactory and fluctuating fitness levels have directly contributed to multiple injuries thereby causing him to be unavailable for selection to the West Indies team.
Due to these multiple injuries, Ramnaresh was available for only two Test matches and a total of only 13 international matches for the West Indies in the past contract year (October 2009 to September 2010) which is less than half of the total number of matches played by the West Indies for the period.
Additionally, following the tour of Australia of 2009, Ramnaresh was one of three players to whom the WICB formally wrote regarding their consistently low levels of fitness.
In Ramnaresh’s case, he then spends a significant period of the tour trying to rectify his unacceptable fitness levels.
Reports from the Team Management are that while one of the three players written to, improved his fitness considerably the fitness levels of the other two – Mr Sarwan and Mr Narsingh Deonarine – remain below par despite the official notice.
Ramnaresh has been informed by a member of the Selection Committee of the reasons for his not being offered a Central Retainer Contract. The WICB is hopeful that Ramnaresh uses this as motivation to significantly improve his overall fitness in an effort to assist in avoiding injury so that he can increase his availability to the West Indies team.

Jerome Taylor
The WICB is disappointed with Mr Taylor’s lack of commitment to his own rehabilitation following injuries sustained in Australia in 2009 and in the ICC World Twenty20 2010.
Jerome, despite being under retainer contract, has not shown the expected attendance and commitment to pursue the required assessment and consequent rehabilitative programmes that would be required.
Further it has been explained to Jerome that his physical make-up requires a specific programme of fitness and exercise to ensure his availability to play cricket at the highest level and avoid frequent breakdowns.
There has not been a demonstrated commitment to achieve that level of fitness and ensure that he can perform consistently at the highest level.

Narsingh Deonarine
Mr Deonarine’s level of fitness is, regrettably, unacceptable for an international cricketer. His results are below par in the majority of fitness tests conducted by the Team Management specialists. Narsingh, despite numerous opportunities, continues to show gross disregard for his fitness. Team Management has pleaded with, beseeched and cajoled Narsingh to improve his overall fitness but to no avail.
Moving forward the Selection Committee does not believe that the WICB should award Central Retainer or Developmental contracts to players who show non-compliance and defiance on matters as fundamental as player fitness and physical preparation.
The WICB emphasises that in the ongoing development of a new team ethos – with regard to achieving outlined goals – a commitment to achieving and maintaining a high level of physical and medical fitness among other criteria (as outlined in the Selection Criteria) will be closely supervised and rigidly enforced.
The WICB believes that the building of a successful West Indies team unit is dependent on a set of core elements – as outlined in the recently published Selection Criteria – which players must demonstrate.
Finally the WICB also reiterates once again that possession of a retainer contract is not a pre-requisite for selection to the West Indies team.

Editor’s notes: The WICB has outlined that the West Indies Twenty20 team should be a settled competitive unit by the ICC WT20 2012 in order to develop into a winning West Indies Twenty20 team by 2014 for the ICC World Twenty20 Tournament.
Similarly the WICB has also outlined that the West Indies One Day International team should be a settled competitive unit by ICC Champions Trophy 2013 so as to build towards a winning combination by the 2015 World Cup.
The WICB recognises that the development of a consistently winning West Indies Test Team will take a longer period and in this regard will have to be reliant on the successes of specific team development programmes and of the West Indies A Team programme and the Sagicor High Performance Center.