Letter to the Sports Editor...Why Sarwan should have been picked by the Guyana Franchise

Letter to the Sports Editor…Why Sarwan should have been picked by the Guyana Franchise

Oct 09, 2014 Sports

Dear Editor,
Observing Ramnaresh Sarwan statements on the popular cable TV sports show, the Sportsmax Zone that he expected to not be selected by Guyana for the now revamped, franchise cricket set-up because some Guyana cricket board (GCB) official doesn’t like him – then reading the Cricket Guyana Inc (CGI) response, has been mind blowing.
It simply reiterates why Guyana’s cricket continues to be joke of the Caribbean ever since all the administrative controversies started way back in 2010.
However, although it pains me to admit, some points made by the CGI makes practical sense. Picking Sarwan given his recent injury record was always going to be a risk, for reasons they asserted. Sarwan’s recent county stint with Leicestershire was cut short due to a reported back injury, so despite many holding out hope for is return – his non participation in recent inter-county competition would have indeed made it difficult for the CGI selectors to pick him.
This though is as far as I’d defend the CGI because many persons involved in the Guyana cricket media in the past and present, would know that Sarwan’s explanation for why he was not picked by the local side is not far-fetched. It is not the first time Sarwan has been strangely left out of a Guyana team for strange reasons in recent years and the word that he and certain cricket board officials have issues is not new.
In fact, many people who have covered Guyana cricket have a fair idea who Sarwan is talking about.
Fact is nobody watches sport and cricket to see the administrators, so when fans are denied the presence of stars by officials, it is never good for the game. We witnessed a key example of this currently with the Kevin Pietersen/England Cricket Board saga.
The 2013/14 season was basically Guyana’s worst ever performance in the history of regional four-day cricket, which commenced in 1965/66. Guyana lost outright to Leewards, Combined Campuses & Colleges & failing to win a game. And if it wasn’t for the foreign intervention in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL), the Amazon Warriors would not have reached the back to back finals with mainly local players.
Noting this dynamic & clear paucity of local talent available to Guyana, cricket logic dictates that the GCB/CGI should have included him in the list of retained player instead of putting him in the draft. A half fit Sarwan is still one of the 10 best players in this country.
Special compensation toward his fitness should have been given, despite missing the inter county’s, similar to the West Indies picking Gayle and Samuels earlier this year for the home one-day international series versus England, despite their Nagicor Super50 absence.
If Trinidad, the one country in the Caribbean who have the best cricket talent depth and didn’t need to look overseas for players could take a chance with Sarwan despite his recent fitness woes, why couldn’t CGI?
Should Sarwan now perform for the Trinidad Red Force, fulfill his ambitions to be part of the West Indies 2015 World Cup squad and the Guyana team doesn’t not improve this regional season – the GCB/CGI will have a lot of egg of their face to wipe off.
Colin Benjamin

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Letter to the Sports Editor…Why Sarwan should have been picked by the Guyana Franchise

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