Dear Editor,
Those quick to accuse the West Indies selection committee chaired by Clive Lloyd of victimising Dwayne Bravo and Keiron Pollard for their roles in the aborted India tour may be missing the far more serious 20-year-old problem which has brought our cricket to its knees.
The case can be made that, by including Bravo and Pollard in the T20 team; there has been no victimisation. So what then is the rationale for Lloyd and fellow selector Courtney Walsh dropping them from the ODI team?
The 15-man World Cup includes no less than six fast/medium bowlers; at least three of them, on current form (Roach,Taylor and Cottrell) having no pretensions to batsmanship.
This presages the continuation of the failed policy of ignoring all-rounders (Bravo and Pollard) and negative spinners (Nikita Miller) with the resultant long donkey's tail in an era when Australia's last three wickets put on over 150 runs in a recent Test against India.
Lloyd and company apparently forget that the names of today's fast bowlers are not Holding, Garner or Marshall. What worked in his time has not worked for 20 years and won't work now. We should be far more concerned with Lloyd's doomed selection policy than any perceived 'victimisation’.
Errol W A Townshend
Ontario, Canada
ewat@rogers.com
Those quick to accuse the West Indies selection committee chaired by Clive Lloyd of victimising Dwayne Bravo and Keiron Pollard for their roles in the aborted India tour may be missing the far more serious 20-year-old problem which has brought our cricket to its knees.
The case can be made that, by including Bravo and Pollard in the T20 team; there has been no victimisation. So what then is the rationale for Lloyd and fellow selector Courtney Walsh dropping them from the ODI team?
The 15-man World Cup includes no less than six fast/medium bowlers; at least three of them, on current form (Roach,Taylor and Cottrell) having no pretensions to batsmanship.
This presages the continuation of the failed policy of ignoring all-rounders (Bravo and Pollard) and negative spinners (Nikita Miller) with the resultant long donkey's tail in an era when Australia's last three wickets put on over 150 runs in a recent Test against India.
Lloyd and company apparently forget that the names of today's fast bowlers are not Holding, Garner or Marshall. What worked in his time has not worked for 20 years and won't work now. We should be far more concerned with Lloyd's doomed selection policy than any perceived 'victimisation’.
Errol W A Townshend
Ontario, Canada
ewat@rogers.com