West Indies chairman of selectors Clive Lloyd has flatly denied he was instructed to drop Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard for the cricket World Cup next month.
In fact, Lloyd believes its not the end of the one-day road for either player, in spite of their omission from the sport’s biggest tournament, and if they perform well they will wear maroon again.
Lloyd, who on Monday night defended the non-selection of Bravo and Pollard to the World Cup side, insisted that the pair’s omission was not victimisation and that the time was right to try something different.
The former West Indies captain, speaking on the Sportsmax Zone, added that it was not the end of the road for the Trinidad and Tobago pair who he encouraged to earn their way back into the side.
Asked if he was given a directive not to choose the T&T all-rounder, Lloyd said: “No. I never spoke to anybody.
“Let people understand that we have been at the bottom rung of the ladder for the last eight years or more with the same players, recycling people all the time,” Lloyd explained.
“The point is that now we tried to see if we can change things. It is obvious picking a West Indies team is not easy. If you look at the stats of our players, they are not wonderful so we will be picking players averaging 20, 25, some even 19 . . . .We [are] starting from scratch,” he added.
He said there were two days of discussions between the selectors and the Windies ODI captain and he described the decision to leave out Bravo and Pollard as a difficult one but a necessary one.
“There was two days of discussions with the three others selectors and the captain and there were very strong arguments for the players and we came out with what we thought was a pretty good team,” Lloyd explained.
“It was not easy to leave out those two guys. It is a discussion that went on and on and on and in the end we thought that we have so many all-rounders. We were trying to see if we can introduce some new faces and as far as I am concerned I think we have a good all-round one-day side,” he added.
“It is not a situation where these guys have been wiped away. They have a chance at playing for the West Indies again. We have a new captain and hopefully he will get the support that is needed and we can put in a very good performance,” the chairman of selectors insisted.
Asked about the “ordinary averages” of Darren Sammy, and Andre Russell, who have similar averages to Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard but who have been included in the World Cup side, Lloyd said: “Sammy has helped people along and I think he will be good for young Jason (Holder) but I actually think Andre Russell could be a fine all-rounder if he applies himself.” (BA/PR)
