West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) right to deny Sarwan retainer contract

Tony Becca - ON THE BOUNDARY

It is not often that the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) gets it right, but this time, in relation to the retainer contract and where it concerns Ramnaresh Sarwan, Narsingh Deonarine and Jerome Taylor, it is bang on target.

Last week, the board announced the list of players on retainer contracts for the year starting on October 1 and to the surprise of many, more so to a vice-president of the Guyana board and the country's chairman of selectors, it did not include not only Deonarine and Taylor, not only Denesh Ramdin and Travis Dowlin, but also Sarwan, Guyana's star batsman.

The Guyanese are huffing and puffing, they are upset mainly because of the omission of Sarwan. But while that is understandable because of Sarwan's value to the West Indies team, in the interest of West Indies cricket, at least where it concerns good professionalism, the fitness of the West Indies team and the future of West Indies cricket, it is a good move.

According to two Guyanese - Bissoon Singh, a vice-president of the Guyana board and chief selector, Claude Raphael, the WICB got it wrong.

According to Singh and Raphael, the WICB is wrong for its failure to award Sarwan a contract and for the timing of its release. It is wrong because Sarwan, fit or unfit, was the holder of a contract in previous years, because he is now fitter than he has ever been and because, like, Deonarine and Dowlin, Sarwan is in Guyana's team for the Champions League tournament in South Africa.

According to Singh, the timing of the release was bad. It should not have come at a time when the players, including captain Sarwan, are preparing "to do Guyana and West Indies proud".

In fact, according to Raphael, the treatment of Sarwan is a national insult.

wrong move?

Under normal conditions, all things concerned, he probably would have been right. Sarwan is only 30 years old; he has represented the West Indies in 83 Test matches in 10 years; he has scored 5,759 runs, including 15 centuries, at an average of 41.73; he has never done or said anything to embarrass West Indies cricket either on or off the field; providing he is fit, he is always available to represent the West Indies; he was selected as the West Indies captain; and to the surprise of many, he was removed after an injury during a match.

On the surface, based on his figures, it really appears that the board probably made a wrong move and especially so, the way it was done. Ideally, Sarwan should have gone through what should be a regular test under the eyes of experts.

According to the board, however, Sarwan is unfit, he has a history of being unfit, enough is enough and the selectors made their decision after looking at Sarwan's history, his record of injuries and his "extremely indifferent attitude and sporadic approach towards fitness".

According to the board, the decision to omit Sarwan from the list came after a warning and on the advice of the "specialists" in the team management.

If that is true, then no one should complain, and especially as Taylor and Deonarine have been treated in a similar fashion for similar behaviour.

When it comes to the approach to fitness, West Indies players, and especially so those of the past 20 years or so, have been guilty of indifference. What is important this time around is that after its own history, after its own record of weak management, the WICB is really serious about the fitness of the players.

With such a record as Sarwan's, the third-highest number of Test runs, the second most centuries and the second best average on the West Indies team, Sarwan should be a "sure pick", and so too should fast bowler Taylor.

As good as Sarwan's record in Test cricket is, however, and with 5,090 runs at an average of 43.94, it is just as good in one-day internationals.

It could have been better, it should have been better and if it has not been better because he is unfit, if the board, through its selectors, feels that fitness, or the lack of it, is the reason why his average is not up in the 50s and he is not making an effort to improve his fitness, then it has a right to do what it has done.

It would be a foolish set of selectors and a silly board that would ignore players like Sarwan and Taylor for the retainer contracts while putting in not only a young, promising player like Darren Bravo, but also players who have failed to deliver, like Devon Smith and Kieron Pollard.

As talented as Darren Bravo is, it seems that he belongs, at this stage, in the contracts reserved for developing players.

Fitness is key

However, with records of 1,315 runs and one century at an average of 24.81 from 31 Test matches, of 538 runs at an average of 19.92 from 30 one-day internationals, Smith and Pollard, respectively, should consider themselves lucky, and very lucky at that.

With all its good intentions, the WICB, whatever the reason, always seem to get it wrong. This time, however, Sarwan or no Sarwan, Taylor or no Taylor, it is right.

Fitness is key to success in sport. Too many West Indies players ignore the importance of fitness and hopefully, the WICB and its selectors are serious this time around.

One bad apple, it is said, can spoil the whole barrel and the WICB, its cricket committee and its selectors, need to be firm when dealing with the players' attitude towards physical fitness, just as it needs to be where it involves training.

If it means denying a player a retainer contract, so be it.

It is high time West Indies players understand the importance of being fit, fully fit. It is high time that they are forced to follow the programme given to them by the trainers and the coaches. It is high time the WICB test the players regularly. And it is high time that there are penalties for "an indifferent approach".

For too long, the WICB has stood by and allowed the players to do whatever they wanted to do, whenever they wanted to do it and that is what has destroyed West Indies cricket.

That is why the talented have failed to develop and why those, some of them, who reach the top, have failed to deliver.

West Indies cricket has always talked about testing players for their fitness before a series or before a tour, and it has always had doctors available to whom the players should go for medical examinations.

The history of West Indies cricket, however, is filled with players who have not attended those fitness tests, players who failed those fitness tests and players who blatantly refused to do their medicals.

No one, not that I can remember, has ever been penalised for refusing to do the tests or the medicals, for failing the test and the medicals and that is the gospel.

If West Indies cricket is to return to its glory days, things must change and for things to change, the West Indies board must insist that the players are in good shape to produce.

The only way to do so is to insist that those players it has on contract do as required and based on the contract, those players are required to train, to practise, and to play cricket, including club cricket, whenever they are not on West Indies duty.

Separate and apart from the match fee, that is the reason for the contract fee.