Tony Becca

After a series of trial matches, or practice matches, whatever you choose to call them, the national selectors, chairman Ruddy Williams, Delroy Morgan and Ephraim McLeod, with help from coach Junior Bennett, selected the national squads from which the teams to participate in the regional four-day Carib Beer Series and the Stanford Twenty20 tournaments next year will be selected, and generally speaking, they did a good job.

As far as the handful of spectators who followed the matches were concerned, they were on the ball, despite, in my opinion, the non selection of left-arm wrist spinner Andre Dwyer.

With players like fast bowler Andre Russell, who produced at least one memorable over in which he took four wickets in four deliveries during one of the matches, and right-arm leg-spinner Gavin Wallace, who impressed with the control, the degree of spin and the bounce of the ball while turning it both ways, getting in, the selectors certainly deserve high marks. An he did not score heavily this time around, especially so for remembering that Donovan Pagon was a good and promising batsman before a series of injuries intervened with his progress after his Test debut against South Africa two years ago.

While many were happy with the selection of the squad for the four-day Carib Beer Series, however, a number of fans were far from happy with the selection of the squad for the Stanford 20/20.

According to the fans, fast bowlers Jermaine Lawson and Andrew Richardson, who are in the four-day squad, should also have been in the included in the 20/20 squad.

Based on their attitude, however, not so, say the selectors.

PACERS INJURED

Both pacers are injured to the point where Lawson, who is suffering from a sick shoulder and some other ailments, was not involved in the matches leading up to the recent KFC regional 50-over one-day tournament and did not play in that tournament, to the point where Lawson's participation in the more recent matches was limited to a few overs here and a few overs there, where Richardson, who is suffering from an injured ankle, did not participate in the more recent matches and they probably did not select them because of that.

It was probably as simple as that.

According to the fans, however the players are injured, the 20/20 tournament starts after the four-day tournament and since they are selected for the four-day, they could easily have been selected for the 20/20 for the simple reason that they may be better by the time comes around for them to perform.

Based on their attitude, however, again not so, say the selectors.

Apart from the possibility that the selectors do not believe in selecting injured players over fit and healthy players and then hope and pray, is the fact that while it is easy to replace players, including injured players, for any match in the four-day tournament, it is difficult, once the squad is named and presented to the organisers, to replace a player, even if he is injured, in the 20/20 tournament.

Whatever the reason or reasons for it, and may be it is to get gear and equipment ready, the Stanford organisation demands the squad early. In fact, for a tournament scheduled to start on February 6 as far as Jamaica are concerned, Jamaica were asked to submit a squad of 20 players in June, they were asked to present another squad of 20 four weeks ago, an the final squad of 16 was only announced on Sunday, they were asked to present it to the Sanford organisers by last Saturday.

The job of a selector is never easy and has never been easy. In these days, however, it is tough - much tougher than it has ever been. The reason for that is probably because of the money involved and especially so in the West Indies where there is a difference, a vast difference, between winning two of the tournaments around and winning the third one.

THE MOST PRESTIGIOUS

Although there was hardly one player at Melbourne Oval on Sunday who expressed dissatisfaction at not being included in the squad for the four-day tournament - the tournament that is supposed to be the most prestigious and the most important in the region, there were a few who were hopping mad that they were not included in the Twenty20 squad.

It may well be because the 20/20 tournament is only 20 overs a side, it may well be because a batsman can be a star by swinging and edging a couple of fours and by hitting a couple of sixes before moving outside the off-stump, attempting to hit the ball any where on the offside, and losing his off-stump, and it may well be because a bowler, a man who runs from some eight or nine metres with nothing on his mind but to get the ball up to the batsman, can pick up wickets when a batsman, after swinging wildly at long hops and at full tosses like a baseball batter, misses the ball, and the wicketkeeper comes forward to catch the ball after waiting for it come down out of the clouds.

It may, however, be much simpler than that: It may well be the difference of getting a share of US$12,500 for winning the regional four-day tournament, of getting a share of much less than that for winning the regional 50-over one-day tournament, and of getting a share of one million U.S. dollars for winning the Twenty20 tournament.