T&T Red Force Head Coach, David Fur­longe, has slammed the Crick­et West In­dies (CWI) se­lec­tion pan­el af­ter spin­ner Bryan Charles was not se­lect­ed for the three-team Headley Weekes tri­an­gu­lar se­ries to crown off the CWI Re­gion­al 4-Day Tour­na­ment sea­son.

Fur­longe’s crit­i­cism came via a T&T Crick­et Board (TTCB) me­dia re­lease yes­ter­day, which stat­ed, “It is dis­ap­point­ing to say the least. There is no jus­ti­fi­able rea­son why Bri­an Charles was not con­sid­ered es­pe­cial­ly af­ter his con­sis­tent per­for­mance dur­ing the re­cent sea­son where he picked up 21 wick­ets and fin­ished fourth in the av­er­ages.”

T&T Red Force fin­ished fourth on the West In­dies Cham­pi­onship ta­ble hav­ing just one win in five match­es while los­ing two and draw­ing two.

The TTCB me­dia re­lease went fur­ther in say­ing, “…the 27-year-old off spin­ner who plays for Queen’s Park Crick­et Club should have an au­to­mat­ic se­lec­tion hav­ing been a reg­u­lar in the West In­dies “A” team set-up last year when he played against Bangladesh.”

The re­lease called out chief se­lec­tor Desmond Haynes, and his com­pa­tri­ot Roland Butch­er for se­lect­ing Bar­ba­di­an Chaim Hold­er, 29, with 18 scalps for Bar­ba­dos in­clud­ing nine wick­ets in one match.

Fur­longe on Wednes­day said the se­lec­tion pol­i­cy was not con­sis­tent with the stat­ed ob­jec­tive of the Headley Weekes teams be­ing picked “from the lead­ing per­form­ers in the 2023 West In­dies Cham­pi­onship and those deemed to be on the fringe of the Test team.”

Fur­longe said “for an in­ex­plic­a­ble rea­son” Charles has been snubbed and de­nied a win­dow of op­por­tu­ni­ty at the West In­dies lev­el.

Al­so chim­ing in on the non-se­lec­tion of Charles was Paras­ram Singh, the third vice-pres­i­dent of the TTCB who called on the lead se­lec­tor to ex­plain their de­ci­sion to leave out the spin­ner “de­spite his ex­cel­lent track record.”

“The omis­sion of Bryan Charles, an ex­treme­ly tal­ent­ed play­er will on­ly serve to damp­en his as­pi­ra­tions as the West In­dies pre­pare for the up­com­ing “A” Team tour of Bangladesh, and the two-Test Se­ries against In­dia at home,” said Singh.

“If West In­dies crick­et is to progress un­der the new ad­min­is­tra­tion at the top, the se­lec­tors must demon­strate to the play­ers that their se­lec­tion will be based on mer­it and not on a whim and fan­cy,” Singh said.

The Headley Weekes se­ries will be staged from April 19 to May 6 at the Coolidge Crick­et Ground (CCG) in An­tigua and all three match­es have been award­ed First-Class sta­tus.

Team Headley and Team Weekes will play against each oth­er and against the West In­dies Acad­e­my in the three-match com­pe­ti­tion.