… No to preferential treatment for players who turned up for WC qualifiers

REGIONAL cricket commentator and analyst, Fazeer Mohammed, has rubbished claims that players who showed up to play for the ICC World Cup qualifiers should have been given preferential consideration when the final squad was selected by Cricket West Indies (CWI) on Tuesday.

Of the 16 players who took part in the qualifier in Zimbabwe last year, which secured the team a place at next month’s World Cup, nine have been included in the final squad.
Two-time T20 World Cup winner Marlon Samuels is the most notable absentee in a list that included Jason Mohammed, Devendra Bishoo, Nikita Miller, Keemo Paul, Rovman Powell and Kesrick Williams.

In this instance, scribbled on the final list submitted to the ICC on Tuesday, the most notable inclusion would perhaps be that of Andre Russell who turned down the chance to represent the region at the qualifiers, after stating that he had not sufficiently recovered from injury.

The situation has sparked debate in some areas, particularly the exclusion of Samuels, who had not played cricket for some time, due to an injury but expected to be fit for the World Cup.

In an interview with the SportsMax Zone, however, Mohammed insisted cricketing reasons should be the only consideration in selecting the squad.

You remember in the days of the Kerry Packer era when the West Indies lost their Packer players for a period and the likes of Alvin Kallicharan and even Malcolm Marshal and so on came into the West Indies squad. From the moment that was sorted out and the World Cup came up in 1979 all the top players were back,” Mohammed added.

“There is no room for sentiment in competitive sport. I understand recognising the roles played but are we selecting a squad as a favour for turning up or are we selecting a squad to be competitive or even getting to the winning stage of the World Cup?” (SportsMax)