… Why was Hemraj given the axe?

Ask Calvin Roberts
IT WAS disgusting for me to sit in the scorers’ area for the first three days of Guyana’s second round West Indies Cricket Board’s Regional four-day game against Barbados, and watch as the Guyanese, led by Christopher Barnwell, put on a pathetic batting display to lose by 136 runs.
First of all, how is it that a team which has within its ranks, batsmen of the calibre of Sewnarine Chattergoon, Narsingh Deonarine and Assad Fudadin – all with Test experience – coupled with Barnwell, Vishal Singh and Anthony Bramble, found it difficult to score 184 for first innings points after the bowlers had done an incredible job to restrict the Barbadians on a track that was conducive to batting.
To crown it all off, they were given 10 minutes before dinner and four sessions – inclusive of the final day’s play, 230 to record a come-from-behind victory and that same batting lineup crumbled for 94, their second lowest score at the venue following the 78 they made against England Lions in 2010.
Yes, some may say that the pitch was inconsistent with its bounce, but whatever happened to application, and that aside, we have become accustomed to players making excuses for their failures, that when they make such comments, especially both Fudadin and Deonarine, one can just smile.
In Guyana’s first innings, Deonarine clearly displayed a lack of fitness and mental toughness, when he was run-out by the full length of the pitch, after calling 17-year-old Tagenarine Chanderpaul through for a single.
Prior to that, Fudadin went back first ball to a delivery from Ashley Nurse in the first innings, offering Shane Dowrich a catch at the wicket, while it was the military medium pace of Carlos Brathwaite which accounted for him in the second innings lbw, for which he claims to have gotten an inside edge onto his pads.
Deonarine started with a 0 and 38 against Jamaica, a game Guyana lost by seven wickets and he followed it up with a pair against Barbados. Chattergoon’s scores to date from the four innings are 0, 13, 50 & 9, while Fudadin’s contribution reads 21, 33, 0 and 12 – absolutely pathetic for a trio with a combined total of 25 Test matches under their belts, for the West Indies.
Singh has scored 18 and 73 against Jamaica and 5 and 1 against Barbados, while Barnwell, who was entrusted with the captaincy position following injuries to appointed skipper Leon Johnson and his deputy Shivnarine Chanderpaul, has to date chalked up scores of 34, 14, 2 and 4.
Looking at the squad to face Windward Islands in the third round from tomorrow, a team that has defeated Guyana at this level for the past three successive years, one would see young Chandrapaul Hemraj being given the axe for the returning Shivnarine Chanderpaul.
So my question to Messrs Rayon Griffith and company on the Senior Selection Panel of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) is, ‘What has Hemraj done wrong and why was he given the axe, when he was not given the slightest chance to showcase his talent?’
Another thing Mr Selectors, ‘How do you expect our young cricketers to react and/or feel, when they have witnessed the treatment meted out to Hemraj, who can either do worse or better than some members of the present squad?’
We hang onto the likes of the Chattergoons, Fudadins and Deonarines, who come into the local competition that is used to select the teams, rich with form, but fail to reproduce such, especially when it matters for Guyana at the Regional level.
The selectors are the ones who get carried away with a century here and there on the local scene but what about playing for pride and country?
To my mind, our team lacked such in their two games so far, while I must say that Barnwell at times failed to exhibit patience and confidence in his bowlers, when in the field.
The 20-year-old Hemraj, who underwent his first stint at the WICB’s High Performance Centre last year, has played three first class matches for Guyana since making his debut against Trinidad and Tobago two years ago, aggregating 57 runs at an average of 9.50 with a top score of 29.
He last played for Guyana in last year’s Regional four-day tournament against Jamaica at the venue for tomorrow’s encounter and judging from the present form displayed by the only fit 11 against Jamaica and Barbados, should have been included in the 13-man squad and not excluded.
It is time we do like some other countries and take the bull by the horns, irrespective of the name of the player/s, as no one is bigger than the game.
In the recently concluded WICB/NAGICO Super50 tournament, Barbados named Kirk Edwards in their lineup and he even flew to Trinidad for the tournament, but having refused to sign for his playing kit for personal reasons, he was sent home.
At the time, Edwards was in a rich vein of form, coming off the back of a successful ‘A’ team tour for the West Indies, but indiscipline was not going to be encouraged by either Hartley Reid (manager) or the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA).
We have to start somewhere with our cricketers, letting them know they came and met the game and will die and leave it too, as it does not depend on them for survival, but the other way around.
Our players make tons of excuses when they are dismissed cheaply and foolishly, but when they go and play for the West Indies and even some other professional team/teams around the world, they buckle down and put their hearts into it, for the sake of being recalled or retained.
It is time we put our hands up and be stern with our players, especially the senior ones, for at the end of the day, cricket is our national sport and many people irrespective of race, age, gender and creed, follow the team and when they do badly, the spectators are the ones who feel it.
So to Griffith and company, let us stop the recycling; for it seems as though the GCB boardroom is a recycling plant for our players and start looking towards further development of the game without those players who tell themselves they are bigger than the sport or the sport cannot do without them.