Former captain of the T&T Red Force team Denesh Ramdin says coach Mervyn Dillon does not want him on the team.
Ramdin was dropped from the Red Force team for the next game against the Leeward Islands Hurricanes after their massive loss to Barbados last weekend, where scored a ‘pair’ of ducks.
Apart from Ramdin, Yannic Cariah, Keagan Simmons, Kissoondath Magram and Daniel St Clair were also dropped and replaced by fast bowler Anderson Phillip, veteran leg-spinner Imran Khan, spinner Khary Pierre, batsman Isaiah Rajah and former West Indies Under-19 batsman Cephas Cooper.
Speaking about the snub by the national selectors with Guardian Media yesterday, Ramdin said: “The coach does not want me on the team. We don’t talk, probably a good morning here or there but we don’t communicate.
“It all started last year in St Kitts when we needed 140 runs from 15 overs and I was batting at the time. I called off the game because the next three batsmen to come after me was very young and it would have been difficult to get that score. I was told he left the ground and called the chairman of selectors (Anthony Gray) and the president of the board (Azim Bassarath) to get me fired.”
Ramdin said he has complained to the T&T Cricket Board (TTCB) about Dillon but was told they would review his contract when it comes up for renewal in May.
“I have complained to the board because this can’t be good for the team. The environment there is not good at all. The players on the team are not comfortable and this cannot be good for the young cricketers on the team,” said Ramdin, adding the selectors have also not been communicating well with the players.
“I was sent a message from the chairman of selectors telling me that I was dropped and should go back and play club cricket in order to get back to where I should be. The game in Dominica was rained off so after failing in one game, I am out of the team. The selectors have shown that they don’t respect the senior players and this is not good.
“The chairman messaged me to tell me I am not on the team but when I make the team, I only hear it on the news.”
The wicket-keeper/batsman also addressed the disrespect meted out to the senior players on the Mason & Guest radio show in Barbados on Tuesday, saying, “They’re not respecting our senior players…They are doing their own thing, basically.
“Ravi Rampaul was available for the whole season and they just bypassed him. When you look around there’s no one who can bowl faster than this guy. He helps the younger players.”
Ramdin told show hosts Andrew Mason and Dr Andrew Forde he was “shocked and surprised” at being dropped.
“Our system is very strange. They will call you and let you know when you get dropped, but when you get selected you have to read it in the news. It’s very disrespectful,” he said.
“I’m not sure what message they’re sending to the younger players because at the moment they have players who think that if you get a low score you’re going to be out the next game, so guys are not comfortable in the game. They’re scratching here, they’re scratching there, they’re wondering ‘if I don’t make runs this game, I’m gone the next game’.”
Ramdin said he would have loved to have captained the team for one more season to give the younger players guidance, but said he believes he was not appreciated or wanted by Dillon, with whom he said he did not “see eye-to-eye”.
“That’s what we’re lacking in the Caribbean at this point in time – the guidance of the younger players to do certain things, but our coach at the moment, I don’t think he wants me around,” he told the radio hosts.
“I believe he just wants a young group of guys that he can dictate and use them to go forward, but this Four-Day Tournament, you need senior players around so that when pressure comes you’d be able to handle it a lot better.”
Asked yesterday by Guardian Media what’s next for him, Ramdin said, “I really want to get back to playing Test cricket, so after missing the first two games of the season based on my ban from last season, I was looking forward to addressing the selectors in the remaining games. Well, that is not going to work out again so I will have to wait for the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) to make a name for myself there so that I can fight to get into the West Indies team for the T20 format.”