Tony Becca

CHRIS GAYLE is back as the West Indies captain. Based on all the reports, he probably deserves it, and good luck to him and the West Indies.

There is one question which I must ask the West Indies selectors and the West Indies Cricket Board, however, and it is this: What has happened to Ramnaresh Sarwan?

Last year, after the disappointment of the World Cup and the decision to remove Brian Lara, the selectors sat down to select the man who they would recommend to the board as the captain of the team to England and, as far as I know, there were only two considerations.

They were Daren Ganga and Sarwan.

Sarwan was recommended to the board and the board accepted the recommendation. Although the board has always said that a captain is selected tour by tour or series by series, based on the West Indies history, based on what happened during the reigns of Frank Worrell, Gary Sobers, Rohan Kanhai, Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards, Richie Richardson, Courtney Walsh, Lara himself, Jimmy Adams, Carl Hooper, and Lara again, the fans sat back and looked forward to the West Indies under Sarwan.

Unfortunately for Sarwan, he suffered an injury to his shoulder during the second Test match, he had to return home.

Ganga, his vice-captain, took over, after the West Indies had lost the Test series 3-0, Gayle took over in the one-day series, after drawing the 20/20 contest 1-1, he led the West Indies to a 2-1 victory.

Sarwan then came back for the World Twenty20 and, after he was injured again, Gayle was named captain of the team to Zimbabwe and South Africa.

What happened?

After suffering an injury during the one-day series in Zimbabwe, Gayle returned against South Africa and, unfortunately for him, after leading the West Indies to victory in the first Test, he suffered another injury in the second Test and was not available after that.

According to reports, Gayle is respected and loved by the players, he inspires them, he did reasonably well as the captain and, if nothing else, based on his on-field results, no one can doubt that.

Apart from the influence of Ganga, the selectors, however, talked about the wonderful relationship between Sarwan and the players.

They talked about his knowledge of the game. They talked about how, as the vice-captain of the team under Lara and under Chanderpaul, he had been groomed for the job for some five years.

And the question is this: What happened in the short time and in the few matches in which he captained the team?

Is it that Sarwan did not live up to the expectations? Or is it that given the opportunity, Gayle, with a record of one victory and one loss in two Test matches, five victories, three losses, and one no-result in nine one-day matches, performed brilliantly, proved himself to be superior to Sarwan and his record of one loss and one draw in his two Test matches, his three victories and one loss in four one-day matches, and could not be ignored or replaced?

Although captaincy is somewhat different, apart from the fact that there is an unwritten rule in sport which says that even if he performs, a substitute, under normal circumstances, must give way to an injured player when that player returns.

I do not believe that there is anything between the two on the field. I do not believe that Sarwan should have been replaced and without even looking at his utterances after the Stanford 20/20 final, I do not believe so for many reasons, including the fact it suggests that the selectors and the board are doing nothing but rolling the dice and hoping once again.

No plan for development

By removing Sarwan as the captain of the team without giving him a fair chance to prove himself, the selectors and the board have once again demonstrated one of the reasons why West Indies cricket is still, after so many, many years, languishing at number eight in both the Test and one-day versions of the game.

By their actions, the selectors and the board have shown that they have no plan for development, that they do not know what they are doing.

Gayle, the man who many thought was an acting captain, the man who said he had no problem playing under Sarwan when he returns, did reasonably well on the field, and no one can question that.

So, too, however, did Sarwan - the man who was groomed for the job and who was given the job.

He did nothing wrong and had no time to do anything wrong.

Unless he is not human, Sarwan must now be quietly wondering what sin, what crime, did he or has he committed.