IS THE WINDIES TRIO BEING VICTIMIZED ?

So let’s play devil’s advocate. The West Indies selectors led by former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd have decided to not selected Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard and Darren Sammy for the One Day International squad to tour South Africa after the current Test series ends. All three players however, are in the T20 squad that will play three T20 internationals between January 9 and 14, 2015.

The three were said to be among those players largely responsible for the very costly disruption to the West Indies your of India in October which fractured the relationship between the two cricket-playing nations and will potentially cost a bankrupt West Indies Board tens of millions of US dollars, money it already doesn’t have.

As part of a process of mending of fences lawyers for the players successfully negotiated for their clients not to be ‘victimized’ for their actions and life went on. A squad that included the majority of the players who were on the Indian tour was selected to tour South Africa to play three Tests, the first of which the West Indies were clobbered by an inning and 220 runs.

Now that that the selectors have gone ahead and selected a squad for the one-day series and omitted the three afore-mentioned players, there has been some outcry albeit not so much. Certainly on this side of the world, the common sentiment is that despite obvious missteps by the West Indies Cricket Board and the West Indies Players’ Association, is that is the players who took the decision to end the tour. Commentators like Tony Cozier however, have opted to blame the administrators for the mishap.

Lloyd has said the selection of new players like Jason Holder as captain, Jonathan Carter and others to replace Bravo, Sammy and Pollard, were made with an eye on the future. That future that involves a ICC World Cup that comes up early next year and the dissenting voices have said that this was not a good time given the fact that these players’ potential impact on the team.

So lets look at that impact.

Axed captain Dwayne Bravo has played in 164 ODIs and has scored 2968 runs at an average of 29.36 with two centuries and 10 fifties. The all-rounder has also taken 199 wickets at an average of 29.51. He has one five-wicket and six of four wicket haul and he averages an economy rate of 5.41 runs per over.

Sammy has played 115 matches and scored 1587 runs at an average of 23.68 and has scored seven 50s with a highest of  84. He has taken 79 wickets at an average of 44.25 runs per wicket and an economy rate of 4.55 runs per over.

Pollard has now played 91 ODIs and has scored 2042 runs including three hundreds and seven fifties at an average of 25.20. He has also snared 44 wickets at an average of 38.11 and an economy rate of 5.57 runs per over.

Judge for yourself, can the West Indies afford to go into a World Cup without these three?

Meantime, all three have been included in the T20 squad of which Sammy is captain. This is the format that they have made a good living at over the past few years and have earned solid reputations playing around the world and making a very good living at it. Pollard, Sammy and Bravo are currently playing in the Big Bash League in Australia and coming straight out of the Ram Slam T20 Challenge in South Africa where Pollard’s Cape Cobra won the title.

Another factor being overlooked is that all three players are among the provisional 30-man squad from which the final set will be selected for the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand between February and March next year. So can they really claim victimization? The final squad is yet to be selected for the World Cup and perhaps their selection will depend on how well the new players called perform on the tour of South Africa.

Only time will tell.