Tony Becca

THE WEST Indies selectors have named a 23-man squad to attend a training camp in preparation for the tours of Zimbabwe and South Africa and, based on some of those selected and on some of those not selected, they have been, once again, true to form.

I must confess that apart from what I have been told about them, I know little or nothing about the young pace bowlers Nelon Pascal and Kemar Roach and, but for the fact it appears that they were selected because of talent rather than performance, that the selectors once again threw the dice and are hoping and praying, I am not in a position to question their selections.

I must also confess that the selection of players like Daren Ganga, Sewnarine Chattergoon, Narsingh Deonarine, Devon Smith and Brenton Parchment as batsmen does not surprise me - not even though their averages, as batsmen, are more like those of bowlers.

Batting averages

For those who do not know or do not remember, Ganga's batting averages in Test matches, first-class matches and one-day internationals are 26.19, 37.02 and 25.54, Chattergoon's in first-class and one-dayers are 31.93 and 31.50, Deonarine's in Tests, first-class and one-dayers are 21.40, 34.34 and 22.75, Devon Smith's are 24.55, 36.34, and 26.26, and as well as he batted in the recently concluded KFC tournament, Parchment's average in first-class cricket is a mere 27.56 after 34 matches.

The selection of those five does not surprise me for the simple reason that West Indies cricket is so weak these days that the selectors probably had no choice but to select them - as I am almost sure they will do with Marlon Samuels if and when he is passed fit.

Disappointing

Apart from scoring only one century in 24 Test matches and only two in 95 one-day internationals, the averages of Samuels, a batsman who is not in the squad pending a report on the injury which kept him out of the KFC Cup, are also, for a batsman, disappointing.

Samuels' averages are 27.30 in Test matches, 35.18 in first-class matches and 29.82 in one-day matches.

Baffling selection

Where the selectors are true to form, however, where they continue to baffle me, is not so much in the non-selection of left-arm wrist-spinner Dave Mohammed or even off-spinner Omari Banks, and it certainly is not in the selection of off-spinner Amit Jaggernauth.

It is in the selection of Dwayne Smith and Rawl Lewis.

As an all-rounder, Dwayne Smith, who started off his Test career with a century in his first match, is a brilliant fielder and, on his day, in one-day cricket, he is a fair to good bowler.

As a batsman, however, he has been a major disappointment and with averages of 24.61 in Test matches, 27.33 in first-class matches and 14.92 in one-day internationals, he must be lucky, even with the state of West Indies cricket, to be still in a West Indies squad.

And if he is lucky, Lewis is very lucky.

A leg-spinner who was quite promising as a young player, Lewis has been a disappointment, a major disappointment, as a Test player.

In four Test matches to date, the 33-year-old Lewis has bowled 759 balls, he has conceded 388 runs, and that is not bad.

What is bad, however, what is embarrassing, is that he has taken only one wicket at an average of 388.00 and at a strike rate of 759.00.

Although his Test matches have been one here, one there and so on, with figures like those, with figures that would be embarrassing to even a batsman who only turns his arm over now and again, Lewis should not even have been considered.

Unless he believes in miracles, when Lewis heard that he was in, he must have been surprised like hell.