WITH typical negligence, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has backed itself into a corner over the dispute between Barbados and the Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC).
It should never have come to that.
From the start, the WICB's stated policy was that the established regional teams (Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Leeward Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, Windward Islands) would have first choice in selection of players over the ill-defined CCC.
Now both Barbados and the CCC have chosen all-rounder Carlos Brathwaite and left-hand batsman Jonathan Carter in their squads for the imminent Regional Super50.
The two young players have been placed in an invidious position and, through no fault of their own, have become the focus of media comment.
Asserting that it has become "a matter of grave concern", the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) has "called on the WICB to assert its own policy" on the selection of Brathwaite and Carter. Even by WICB standards, it's an absurd situation.
Not that it shouldn't have seen it coming.
According to its tribute to Miles Bascombe, Nkruma Bonner and Brathwaite for their recent inclusion in the West Indies team, the weekly UWI Notebook claimed last week that the CCC is "a development project devised by leading tertiary level educators and designed to reinvigorate the region's declining cricketing fortunes".
That Floyd Reifer (now aged 38) should have been in the team since its inception–and still is--in preference to younger, talented players refutes such an assertion.
There are other issues that prompted Joel Garner, the BCA president as well as chairman of the WICB cricket committee, to observe that the WICB needs to have "a serious look" at the role played by the University of the West Indies (UWI) and the CCC.
Not before time, it will be discussed at the WICB's meeting in a few weeks time. Given its track record, nothing much can be expected out of it. link
These are the guys leading WI cricket?