IN the eyes of all Guyanese it is unacceptable that the West Indies selectors have selected a touring squad and not a single Guyanese is included. Guyana and West Indies’ batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul, is the number one Test batsman in the world.  India’s Sachin Tendulkar is thirty-nine years old and he is a major part of India’s one-day squad. Several players around the world are older and less fit than Chanderpaul and they are representing their respective country at the International level.
It is imperative that all Guyanese and the people of the Caribbean speak out against this blatant discrimination against Guyanese Cricketers. The West Indies squad to play in England in the three limited overs matches is a blatant manifestation of insularity.
Further, Ottis Gibson must be held accountable for his unjustifiably derogatory utterances regarding Chanderpaul and Deonarine.
It is indeed heartening to see that Chris Gayle is selected and many are of the opinion that no one is a better batsman than Shivnarine Chanderpaul to open the batting alongside Gayle. Furthermore, none of the batsmen selected for this West Indian squad proved themselves equal to Narsingh Deonarine in the last Regional Tournament. Deonarine scored the most runs in the year 2012 Regional Tournament and he was unquestionably one of the leading spinners. Deonarine is a utility player and by virtue of his performance he should have been selected to play for the West Indies Test and One Day Teams.
The selectors selected six medium pace bowlers who “can bat”.  Darren Sammy, Dwayne Bravo, Keiron Pollard, Lendl Simmons, Dwayne Smith and Andre Russell are all medium fast bowlers who may be considered as lower order batsmen. Fidel Edwards, who is most likely to get injured and break down, and with Ravi Ramphaul are the only two quick bowlers.
No place could be found for Jerome Taylor who is a truly quick bowler, and who can bat in the middle order. The selection of all these all-rounders is ludicrous. It leads one to question whether or not this team was selected merely to complement ‘misfit’ Sammy.
I must, however, note that Sunil Narine is a genuine spinner and the team will depend heavily on this debutant – a, seemingly rare, good decision by the West Indian Selectors.
Johnson Charles is an unknown character who must be enjoying a close and extremely beneficial relationship with one of the musketeers on the West Indies Cricket Board. Charles was a complete failure against the Australians at home in the Caribbean, yet he has been selected to tour England. It is difficult to think of a more blatant example of nepotism than the selection of Charles to this squad.
West Indies will be playing three One Day Internationals against England.  However, it will be interesting to see Darren Sammy’s West Indies team bat through the allotted 50 overs in all three games.
The West Indies team selected to play in England is an insult to the Caribbean and Guyana in particular. In the last regional tournament the Guyana team were forced to play all their matches away from home. As a result, while all the other players benefited from home advantage, our players had to suffer and play under difficult conditions away from home.
The time is most opportune when Guyanese must organise, mobilise and in one voice call for our Guyanese players to be included in the West Indies Team.
Ramnaresh Sarwan is the best person to captain the West Indies Team. Oh!  Sarwan scored a century on Tuesday.  His third century for this season.