Vin­ode Mam­chan

For­mer Test spin­ner Clyde Butts has been re­tained as chair­man of the West In­dies Crick­et Board (WICB) se­nior se­lec­tion com­mit­tee. Al­so re­tain­ing his post as se­lec­tor was Ja­maican Robert Haynes. How­ev­er there is no place for T&T's Raph­ick Ju­madeen who formed part of the last pan­el. Ju­madeen was re­placed by for­mer West In­dies Test wick­et­keep­er Court­ney Browne of Bar­ba­dos. This de­ci­sion was among sev­er­al made by the WICB di­rec­tors dur­ing a meet­ing in St. Lu­cia on the week­end. Bal­dath Ma­habir and Dud­nath Ramkessoon, the two di­rec­tors rep­re­sent­ing the T&T Crick­et Board (TTCB), of­fered Gus Lo­gie and An­tho­ny Gray as pos­si­ble se­lec­tors but both were re­ject­ed.

Bar­ba­di­an Browne played 20 Test match­es for the West In­dies, scor­ing 387 runs at 16.12. He al­so took 79 catch­es and ef­fect­ed two stump­ings. His ca­reer end­ed as cap­tain of Bar­ba­dos. A source told the T&T Guardian the de­ci­sion to re­tain Guyanese Butts and Haynes did not go down well with sev­er­al of the di­rec­tors. "The choice of Browne met with the most ap­provals but Butts and Haynes caused a stir. The team has been head­ing down a slip­pery slope and the se­lec­tion pan­el must be held ac­count­able. They have made a num­ber of star­tling se­lec­tions but still find them­selves back in of­fice which is crazy."