THE omission of Ramnaresh Sarwan from the West Indies touring party to Sri Lanka is madness. To deny him a retainer contact is one thing. However, to omit him from a squad of 15 is a clear case of the selectors wanting to kill the goose that lays the golden egg. And inevitably, they have opened the old wounds of racial discrimination against East Indians in West Indies cricket. Sarwan has clearly demonstrated during the past four months that he is fit. He led Guyana to victory in the domestic Twenty20 tournament; he played in all four games in the Champions League in South Africa and has just finished playing in the West Indies regional ODI tournament in Jamaica. His fitness and form was never an issue in any of these tournaments. While Shivnarine Chanderpaul remains our most reliable batsman and Christopher Gayle the most flamboyant, Sarwan is still the best batsman in the region.

The selectors do not know how good a batsman Sarwan really is. On his day, he is second to none. His match winning fourth innings hundred against Australia at St. Johns in 2003 helped West Indies chase down the world record score of 418 to win. A match winning fourth innings hundred is very special. To date, there have been 1,973 Tests played and 3,399 hundreds scored. Only 63 of those hundreds have been match winning fourth innings hundreds. Furthermore, only five batsmen have scored at least two of them. They are Ricky Ponting of Australia (3 times), Graham Smith of South Africa (3), Conrad Hunte of the West Indies (2), Justin Langer of Australia (2), and Sarwan (2). The lad from Wakenaam is in an elite group.

Seven other West Indians have achieved this rare feat once. They are Garfield Sobers (1958), Seymour Nurse (1969), Gordon Greenidge (1984), Vivian Richards (1987), Desmond Haynes (1989), Brian Lara (1999: the greatest Test innings played) and Shivnarine Chanderpaul (2003). The legendary Three Ws – Everton Weekes, Frank Worrell and Clyde Walcott – never did it. Neither did George Headley, Rohan Kanhai nor Clive Lloyd. A match winning fourth innings hundred is indeed a special innings. Sarwan is that goose that is capable of laying that golden egg.

Other eternal greats of the game – Jack Hobbs of England (1912), Don Bradman of Australia (1948), Sunil Gavaskar of India (1976) and Javed Miandad of Pakistan (1984) – achieved this rare feat only once. So to the shortsighted West Indian selectors I am compelled ask, “Why kill the goose that can lay the golden eggs?”

Sarwan is so good that when he fails he disappoints us all. We expect so much more from him especially in an age when Lara has retired and West Indies fortunes continues to permanently ebb into oblivion. Sarwan’s omission is a travesty of the first degree. No amount of white washing such as ‘attitude’ and ‘fitness’ can mask this atrocity by the selectors.

Unfortunately, Sarwan’s omission is symptomatic of the deep rooted cause of West Indies permanent decline as world power: the management across the region is awful. Everyone knows that the ‘brain drain’ has robbed the region of its best minds. Nevertheless, the selectors ought to know that Sarwan remains the best batsman the region. Even Ray Charles can see that. 

Sarwan’s omission raises the inevitable question of racial discrimination against East Indians. The omissions of fellow countryman Narsingh Deonarine and Trinidad’s Denesh Ramdin have opened old wounds in West Indies cricket. It is well established that throughout the 20th century East Indians were not given a fair chance to make the West Indies team.

The selection of an East Indian to the West Indies team was few and far in between. Sonny Ramadhin broke the colour barrier in 1950. Rohan Kanhai and Nyron Asgarali followed in 1957, Basil Butcher (of mixed race), Ivan Madray and Joe Solomon in 1958, and Charran Singh in 1960. Singh aside, the 1960s under the captaincy of Worrell and Sobers saw a drought in new East Indian selections.

There was a flurry of new selections in the 1970s: Inshan Ali in 1971, Alvin Kallicharran and Raphick Jumadeen in 1972, Len Baichan in 1975, Imtiaz Ali in 1976, Sew Shivnarine in 1978 and Faoud Bacchus in 1979. The spout was turned off again with the selection of Rangy Nanan in 1980. Chanderpaul came along in 1994 to fill a yearning void in the East Indian consciousness. And there was Dinanauth Ramnarine in 1998. Brian Lara’s surprise choices of Dinanath Ramnarine and 19-year-old Daren Ganga in 1998 ushered in a new era of hope for East Indians. Other selections followed quickly: Surij Ragonauth in 1999, Sarwan and Mahendra Nagamootoo in 2000, Dave Mohammed in 2004, Deonarine, Ramdin and Ryan Ramdass in 2005, Seenarine Chatergoon and Amit Jaggernauth in 2008 and Adrian Bharat and Ravi Rampaul in 2009. This past decade was the golden age for East Indian selection to the West Indian team. Lara deserves full credit for giving the boys a chance while he was West Indies captain until 2007. However, it now appears that the racial discrimination against the East Indians has returned in full force with the omission of three East Indians: Sarwan, Deonarine and Ramdin. 

Where does Sarwan go from here? West Indies next Test engagement is against India and Pakistan at home next year in May – July. So that is not of immediate concern. However, after the West Indies tour of Sri Lanka, there is the 2011 World Cup on the subcontinent in February – March. Does this mean Sarwan will not be in the 2011 World Cup squad? Surely, our selectors are not capable of such foolishness. But then again, they seemed intent on killing the goose that can lay the golden eggs.