Dear Editor,
History allows us the opportunity to reflect, learn and adapt. Trinidad and Tobago, and by extension West Indies Cricket have officially just taken ten steps backwards. We are not learning.
The TTCB's new selection committee is off and running with their first assignment, by selecting the final 15 players for the upcoming Regional Super 50 tournament next month. It will be captained by Kieron Pollard, with his deputy being Darren Bravo. The rest of the squad includes Evin Lewis, Lendl Simmons, Jason Mohammed, Denesh Ramdin, Ravi Rampaul, Nicholas Pooran, Imran Khan, Sunil Narine, Akeal Hosein, Kjorn Ottley, Anderson Phillip, Khary Pierre and Jaydon Seales. The team will be coached by the newly installed David Furlonge.
On the surface, it looks a superb team that will be very hard to beat, although basically this very team was upset last year in the semi-final by the Youthful Windies Emerging Players... the eventual champions. Did I just use the word youthful? A team that helped groom Joshua Da Silva onto test duty and his first test 50 on debut? Must be an error. But anyway, the fans will be happy and they have all right to be. This tournament looks all but sewn up even before a ball is bowled. But then what?
During the 1990s, I was appointed captain of the prestigious Queen's Park Cricket Club. Back then, the role included a seat on the Club's Management Committee as well as leading the charges on the field of play. Former West Indies (WI) opening batsman, Bryan Davis was the then Cricket Administrator of the Club, and along with myself and the Club's Cricket Committee, we were charged with the responsibility of taking the Club's cricket forward. It was clearly the dawn of a new age.
The very first thing Bryan told me is that planning was critical, and having a vision of what you wanted to achieve was a major part of the process. Bryan's wise words were to the effect that to be successful, persons plan and create their future. Naturally, while the Club had 4 teams, the Championship Team/First XI was always the one in main focus. Admittedly, QPCC had and still has a wealth of young cricketing talent, good facilities being an international venue and a history of producing quality players and eventually men of solid stature.
In analyzing the Championship Team, it was evident that possibly some of the guys who served the Club admirably may have been past their very best. They weren't ready to go, but it was time for some changes to be made...changes that might cause early growing pains, but necessary to ensure that we were ready to shape the future. Sharing this vision with the Club's management, two major things happened. Along came the investment in an Indoor Cricket Centre and secondly, the investment in our youth via a tour to Australia. They turned out to be masterstrokes.
The First XI now included the Jan twins (aged 17), Dwayne Bravo (15), Ricardo Paty (17), Zaheer Ali (16), Navin Chan (17), Rodney Sooklal (16), along with some older heads such as Gregory Davis, Clint Pamphille, Suruj Ragoonath and myself in the most part. The Club was in uproar. Some of the older stalwarts were omitted for what now looked like a way too inexperienced team that surely could cause the Club to be embarrassingly demoted for the first time in its history. That was the talk on the ground at Queen's Park at that time, and this Red Force team surely reminded me about that. Is the T&T selection committee headed by Rajendra Mangalie missing the opportunity or will the rebuilding start next year?
The end of season one, QPCC was proudly crowned 50-over Sunday League Champs and placed a credible 3rd in the league. Year two we won the coveted League Title and got to the 50 over semis. All of the aforementioned youngsters went on to represent T&T at youth level, 5 at senior level, with two captaining our nation, and of course one of them, DJ Bravo becoming an international superstar. He still is to this day.
What this policy did was open the door to an entirely new way of thinking of how cricket should be developed at the Club level. It ushered in many great years of future title wins guided by captains with youthful teams, and several players going on to successfully represent WI and now their T20 franchises. There's a lengthy list.
But back to the Red Force. There's no doubt that there's incredible talent in this team, but at what expense? I articulated my case several weeks ago, urging our selectors to “unleash the young lions”. Do the right thing. It'll take some guts, planning and vision, as now is as good a time as any. This was of course ignored.
There's no room for the very talented Jyd Goolie, a former WI U19 player who scored his first, first-class hundred for T&T last year and got a fabulous hundred in these trials. In the same vein, Isaiah Rajah, Tion Webster, Jeremy Solozano, Terrance Hinds, all brilliant youngsters in their early and mid-twenties were left out. Amir Jangoo has had to venture to another Franchise team to be able to be a part of the competition. These young men already have several years of regional cricket experience under their belts and have performed extremely well in trials. So what's the keep back? As mentioned, we took a chance with youthful enthusiasm. This bunch is way more qualified.
I am confident, that as early as 2021 when the four-day professional league starts, as many as 50% of this very team would have retired from first-class cricket. We don't even have to wait a full year. The youngsters kept on the sidelines will have lost out on a great opportunity to grow their experience, skills and self-confidence. It is the understatement of the century to say that CWI needs more than ever that these youngsters develop and to do so quickly. If I had to grade the new TTCB selection panel, they'd get a 2 out of 10 at best. The damage is already done.
So while we may very well be jumping in the stands or in front of our Samsung TVs, watching the Red Force bring us short term glory, I dare say again, that T&T, and by extension WI cricket, has stumbled 10 steps backwards. The free-fall continues.
Andre Lawrence
Former National cricketer