National captain just six weeks ago, and praised highly by Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) officials when he was appointed, all-rounder Kenroy Williams has now been stumped by the same selectors.
But Test players Kirk Edwards and Fidel Edwards have been fittingly welcomed with open arms in the 14-man squad selected for the Caribbean Twenty20 which starts early next year on January 9 in Antigua and climaxes in Barbados.
Stylish batsman Kirk Edwards has struggled in this format in his previous ten T20s, averaging just 12 runs an innings, but that was over the last two years.
Since then he has made a phenomenal start to his Test career with two centuries and three half-centuries for an average of 54.09 in six Tests, and is definitely worthy of selection in any Barbados cricket team even if it was marble cricket as there has been a complete transformation in his approach to batting.
Already appointed as Barbados’ first-class captain, it won’t be surprising if he also gets the nod to lead the T20 side with the resurgent Dwayne Smith as his deputy.
The shocking omission of Williams, an outstanding performer in all formats of the game at the domestic level, comes after he led the team in the rain-ruined Regional Super50 in Guyana in October. He made 30 and took one for 41 in ten overs with his nagging off spin in Barbados’ only full match which they lost by 48 runs to their hosts.
Another notable exclusion is West Indies’ Test and One-Day pacer Kemar Roach while big-hitting wicket-keeper Carlo Morris, who has mustered 97 runs in ten previous T20s at an average of 10.77, and young opener Rashidi Boucher were also dropped from last year’s T20 squad.
With 31-year-old Morris out, despite his usual ball-beating against bowlers in this year’s ongoing domestic Sagicor T20, the selectors have opted for promising 20-year-old wicketkeeper Shane Dowrich, who averages 7.80 in seven List “A” matches and 7.50 in his two T20 matches so far, but is clearly one for the future.
It means that the experienced Patrick Browne, 29, who top-scored in Barbados’ lone innings in October’s Regional Super50 in Guyana with an impressive 66, and was the only wicketkeeper to score a half-century in that tournament, has been stalled again in seeking a West Indies recall.
Browne averaged 33.50 in five One-Day Internationals in 2008 when he also made 55 in the last of just two T20 matches for Barbados against Trinidad and Tobago in the semi-final of the Stanford Tournament.
Established batsmen Dale Richards and former captain Ryan Hinds, neither of whom has managed a regional T20 50 so far but have proven their worth in other formats, have been retained.
So too has all-rounder Kevin Stoute, who has played just a solitary match and is yet to bat after being selected in the squad for the past two years.
