With the embarrassing defeat at Hobart Oval last week in the first Test (in two and a half days) and the disastrous performance in the warm up match that preceded it, is it not time for the selectors of that squad to be questioned about their experiment of choosing youth over experience, the so-called Clive Lloyd model? There is virtually no experienced player on tour who consistently performs and can be relied upon to deliver the way Shivnarine Chanderpaul did.
To say the squad, selected by the selection committee led by chairman of selectors Clive Lloyd, has been an abject failure is understating what really has been happening in Australia and in prior series. The team has been underperforming for the entire year and its meek submission in Hobart was not unexpected. These are not players who fight tooth and nail for honour and nation. Virtually every player was lethargic and lackadaisical on the field.
The squad badly lacked experience and most of the squad should be sacked along with coaches, selection panel and management. Lloyd should know that he couldn’t send an inexperienced team to Australia and expect wins; the team needs the very best and a balance of youth and experience.
The team was selected by Lloyd as chair, Simmons, Captain Jason Holder and others with the blessing of the management. Lloyd’s argument was that he wanted new blood—a team of youth. The most prolific run scorer and the most experienced player, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who rarely disappoints, was excluded from contention and the team has been paying a hefty price (humiliated in Sri Lanka, West Indies and now Australia) for that foolish decision. Lloyd said he wanted youth over experience. Chanders did not fit into Lloyd’s formula of moving forward with youth.
What good are the youths if they can’t perform and if they consistently fail? Chanders could not be excluded from the team based on non-performance because almost all of them on tour also failed in recent series including the last one that Chanders played. Chanders, like Lloyd at 42, still has a lot of cricket remaining. Chanders at 41 is still fit (more than the youths) and is willing to play unlike most of the others who were selected for the tour. He is a fighter unlike Lloyd’s youths.
Chanders is a legend in his own league and class that includes Tendulkar, Lara, Kallis, etc. He is a gutsy player who fans love. He is the last one from that generation of great players who made their debut in the 1990s still standing. He is also an attraction for gate receipts. He should not have been sacked by Lloyd, and worse, not given a proper send off as promised by President Cameron of WICB.
If the team is selected on performance, the entire team should have been replaced. It should be recalled that Chanders was removed from the One-Day squad at a time when he was youthful and very productive with the explanation that the committee wanted to preserve him for Test cricket so as to prolong his career. And now he is doing better than almost all of the others (in recent first class cricket) and yet the selection committee does not want him.
The selection panel opted for youth over experience; they did not even opt for a balanced combination of youth and experience as previous selection committees did. The committee should have known that it can’t simply cut Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo and Chanders from the squad without suffering serious consequences. Gayle and Bravo opted for 20/20. At least one (Chanders since he is available) should have been included in the team to buttress youth and inexperience.
Lloyd’s youths have failed miserably. Should he not accept responsibility and do the honourable thing that Caricom governments have been asking of the management—step aside? Lloyd and his selection committee should have the maturity to acknowledge that their model of selection formula (of youth over experience) has failed and tender their resignation. If they are unwilling to resign, the WI management should rescind their appointment.
The selection panel has an opportunity to redeem itself after sacking Chanders and recall him. They said they wanted to send Chanders out in grace. With that heavy defeat last week, the management and selection panel have a second opportunity to redeem themselves—recall Chanders and then resign from management and the selection panel.
Dr Vishnu Bisram