By Tony Becca - On The Boundary 
THE WEST Indies have selected 30 players in a provisional squad for next year's World Cup in South Africa and, although it was not their idea, although it was a dictate from the International Cricket Council following an agreement by all 14 countries, it seems a waste of time. In fact, it is a waste of time.
It is a waste of time for three simple reasons.
The first reason is that with the World Cup scheduled to start on February 9, with the West Indies idle between now and then and with the regional tournament set to start on January 31, there will be no other opportunity to assess the players in match conditions.
The second reason is that with the camp in preparation for the World Cup scheduled for January 14-28, there will be no preparation of the squad - no practice matches or even official net sessions - before, again according to the ICC dictate, the final squad of 15 is selected by December 31.
The third reason is that based on the selection of players over the past year or so when everything, certainly as far as one-day matches were concerned, should have been focused on the World Cup, and the performance of their young batsmen recently, there should not be more than 17 or 18 players from whom the final 15 will be selected.
Looking at the squad of 15 for the World Cup, it should be eight batsmen, one wicketkeeper, and with their best allrounders, including Carl Hooper, numbered among their best batsmen, six bowlers.
The eight batsmen, based on performance and particularly so over the past year, should be Chris Gayle, Wavell Hinds, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Marlon Samuels, Ricardo Powell, Hooper and Brian Lara, the wicketkeeper should be Ridley Jacobs, and the six bowlers should come from pacers Mervyn Dillon, Pedro Collins, Jermaine Lawson, Daren Powell, Vasbert Drakes, Corey Colymore and Cameron Cuffy and legspinner Mahendra Nagamootoo or allrounder Gareth Breese with his offspin.
Unless the selectors are admitting that they have been guessing all along, or that they have been pulling names from a hat, that should be it.
The only other players who deserve to be in the squad at this time, and only as back up in case of injury during the camp, are batsman Floyd Reifer, who has been doing well and has demonstrated a level of maturity since he was dropped, batsman Daren Ganga, who has been in the mix, batsman Ryan Hinds and wicketkeeper Keith Hibbert.
Following the performances that led to their omission and then their non selection during the past year or so, following their non performance in the regional competitions, it would be strange, despite the weakness of the bowling, if the selectors are really thinking not only of Marlon Black and Reon King but also, despite his early promise and a reasonable season in South Africa, Nixon McLean.
In the past, the West Indies selectors have been the target of criticism and some times they deserve to be. Not this time, however. This time they deserve the benefit of the doubt. This time they could only have named so many players because of the ICC; and because of that they included some who they probably would not even think about for World Cup 2003.
